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Topology optimization describes a generative process for the creation of minimum weight structures with maximum stiffness.

For a description see:

Bendsøe, Martin P., and Ole Sigmund. Topology Optimization: Theory, Methods and Applications. Berlin Heidelberg, 2003 : Springer Verlag, 2nd. edition 2003.

Some screendumps, workstudies and studies for topology optimized geometries, all wip. tests are done with http://www.topopt.dtu.dk/ the design space is subdivided into discrete tetrahedra or block entities that are calculated with Finite Element analysis for identification of structural fitness.

It is interesting to investigate this design method as a translation of tradional formfinding methods, that reference frei otto, gaudi , heinrich huebsch and others.

Leopold Lambert  from Pratt asked me to write a manifesto for a future architecture. and this was the result:

SuperRomance

To write about a future vision of Architecture asks for a systematic concept on how we can blend competing interests and possibilities, be they of technological, economical or social nature, into a building practice.  I don´t have this systematic idea that is applicable for all cases at hand. I mostly work on “Wicked Problems” as Donald Schoen would call them. These are problems that mutate while you work on them. Maybe I am the wrong one to ask to write a manifest.
I am not Marinetti. But I know what I strive for.

I will try to explain why I am doing what I am doing through an example.
A couple of years ago I was visiting the site of the Sagrada Familia Church in Barcelona with a group of students. I separated myself from the rest to experience the building alone. The site was under full production with stonemasons working and groups of tourists running through the aisles. I was going down to the basement, passing screens that showed some CATIA models and explained some geometric methods on how a specific part of the Passion-facade was developed. I descended into the model workshop and looked at the collection of analog and digital models that were at display, with the hanging model of the Colònia Güell church as the center piece.
I was looking at an architectural practice that worked with tradition and experiment, it seemed like a continuous romantic attempt to gather the best what a civilization could provide at that specific point in time, augmenting knowledge through practice. The idea of a building site that is still there when I will be gone someday was appealing since it negotiated the author through time, the Individual faded while the Whole became sharper in its contours. This experience had something uplifting humane that blended technology, spirituality, knowledge, geometry and death into a building.
At what stage this blend was taken place I was unable to tell; it seemed as if the disciplines were melting at a certain point of execution into another state that then “made” the building.

All this was not the factual reality, but my experience was.

I want to be part of a culture that does these things.

The 5 day workshop will investigate a generative formfinding method for the creation of minimum weight structures with maximized Stiffness. This methodology that is more common in mechanical engineering and aeronautical research projects should be investigated for a potential application in an architectural context. The contemporary awareness of these generative structural processes is growing within the field of architecture, yet their application is very sparse due to the evolving irregularities of the calculated surfaces and volumes and the dependant manufacturing-and economical constraints. Examples of an evolutionary structural optimization in the field of architecture can be seen in the formfinding of Sagrada Familia´s Passion Façade by Gaudí (Burry, et al. 2004) and for the 2007 competition proposal of the new Florence train station by Arata Isozaki and Mutsuro Sasaki  (Ito, Isozaki og Sasaki 2007).

These structural solvers can broaden the scope of potential design solutions that are conceptually entwined with emerging production facilities of

additive fabrication. The so created design solutions often generate biomorphic geometries that three-dimensionally negotiate the set structural boundary conditions as loads, supports and voids into a meshed geometry. The software extends historical formfinding methods that have been tested by Gaudí and Otto for the creation of a new typology of structural components that fully rely on purely digital processes.

Recent innovations in additive fabrication technologies as Enrico Dini´s Radiolaria Project, a 3D printing device for large scale stone sculptures, point to interesting manufacturing opportunities for complex geometries in the future. Additive fabrication technologies that can manufacture these biomorphic structures in larger build sizes enhance the architectural repertoire in a significant way. The outcome of the optimisation can then be negotiated with prior design intent.

The increasing opportunities that computational tools and additive fabrication processes have to offer require a new conceptualization process in the design field to take place. One objective of the workshop is also to investigate new design methods and evaluate their applicability for an architectural task. This process can be identified according to Christopher Frayling as a Research into Art and Design (Frayling 1993) since it introduces new material and structural possibilities into the architectural practice, that have to be conceptualized for a new generation of characteristic artifacts.

Graded stiffness Values of three Additive fabrication probes with 3D heterogenous properties

The following experiment investigates the creation of a three-dimensionally gradient material with varying degrees of stiffness with the aid of additive fabrication. The experiment employs a performance profile that is created through finite element analysis (FEA) for the creation of locally different mechanical properties. In the last step the physical probe in the dimensions 100mm x 100mm x 25mm will be mechanically tested to critically access the design methodology and material behavior.

It is claimed that a material can be produced with additive fabrication techniques that has a three dimensional zones of gradually varying stiffness. The experiment proposes a geometric assembly that is composed of a matrix geometry that has a three dimensional array of identical spheres with a gradually differing materiality embedded. Each sphere inhabits hereby a lattice cell of 2mm x 2mm x2mm with a radius of 0.9mm and a resolving distance to the lattice´s edge of 0.1mm. This spatial grid divides the entire virtual probe block into 50 x 50 x 12 modular units. Different material properties will be later assigned to the individual spheres in the lattice structure to be manufactured with the aid of the Connex technology.