Achim Menges

Meteorosensitive architecture

In this paper, the authors present research into autonomously responsive architectural systems that adapt to environmental changes using hygroscopic material properties. Instead of using superimposed layers of singular purpose mechanisms-for sensing, actuation, control and power-in the form of high-tech electronic equipment as is emblematic for current approaches to climate responsiveness in architecture, the presented research follows an integrative, no-tech strategy that can be considered to follow biological rather than mechanical principles. In nature plants employ different systems to respond to environmental changes. One particularly promising way is hygroscopic actuation, as it allows for metabolically independent movement and thus provides an interesting model for autonomous, passive and materially embedded responsiveness. The paper presents a comprehensive overview of the parameters, variables and syntactic elements that enable the development of such meteorosensitive architectural systems based on the biomimetic transfer of the hygroscopic actuation of plant cones. It provides a summary of five years of research by the authors on architectural systems which utilize the hygroscopic qualities of wooden veneer as a naturally produced constituent within weather responsive composite systems, which is presented through an extensive analysis of research samples, prototypes at various scales, and two comprehensive case studies of full scale constructions. Access and instrumentalisation of computational capacities within organic systems.Formal complexity through singular parametric differentiation in material behaviour.Environment cognisant architectural systems with climate dependent formal behaviour.Embedded biomimetic intelligence through material programming.

Fibrous structures: An integrative approach to design computation, simulation and fabrication for lightweight, glass and carbon fibre composite structures in architecture based on biomimetic design principles ☆

Abstract In this paper the authors present research into an integrative computational design methodology for the design and robotic implementation of fibre-composite systems. The proposed approach is based on the concurrent and reciprocal integration of biological analysis, material design, structural analysis, and the constraints of robotic filament winding within a coherent computational design process. A particular focus is set on the development of specific tools and solvers for the generation, simulation and optimization of the fibre layout and their feedback into the global morphology of the system. The methodology demonstrates how fibre reinforced composites can be arranged and processed in order to meet the specific requirements of architectural design and building construction. This was further tested through the design and fabrication of a full-scale architectural prototype.

From Nature to Fabrication: Biomimetic Design Principles for the Production of Complex Spatial Structures

In the current paper the authors present a biomimetic design methodology based on the analysis of the Echinoids (sea urchin and sand dollar) and the transfer of its structural morphology into a built full-scale prototype. In the first part, an efficient wood jointing technique for planar sheets of wood through novel robotically fabricated finger-joints is introduced together with an investigation of the biological principles of plate structures and their mechanical features. Subsequently, the identified structural principles are translated and verified with the aid of a Finite Element Model, as well as a generative design system incorporating the rules and constraints of fabrication. The paper concludes with the presentation of a full-scale biomimetic prototype which integrates these morphological and mechanical principles to achieve an efficient and high-performing lightweight structure.

Biomimetic design processes in architecture: morphogenetic and evolutionary computational design

Design computation has profound impact on architectural design methods. This paper explains how computational design enables the development of biomimetic design processes specific to architecture, and how they need to be significantly different from established biomimetic processes in engineering disciplines. The paper first explains the fundamental difference between computer-aided and computational design in architecture, as the understanding of this distinction is of critical importance for the research presented. Thereafter, the conceptual relation and possible transfer of principles from natural morphogenesis to design computation are introduced and the related developments of generative, feature-based, constraint-based, process-based and feedback-based computational design methods are presented. This morphogenetic design research is then related to exploratory evolutionary computation, followed by the presentation of two case studies focusing on the exemplary development of spatial envelope morphologies and urban block morphologies.

Biomimetic Lightweight Timber Plate Shells: Computational Integration of Robotic Fabrication, Architectural Geometry and Structural Design

The research presented in this paper pursues the development and construction of a robotically fabricated, lightweight timber plate system through a biologically informed, integrative computational design method. In the first part of the paper, the authors give an overview of their approach starting with the description of the biological role model and its technical abstraction, moving on to discuss the computational modelling approach that integrates relevant aspects of biomimetics, robotic fabrication and structural design. As part of the validation of the research, a full-scale, fully enclosed, insulated and waterproof building prototype has been developed and realized: The first building featuring a robotically fabricated primary structure made of beech plywood. Subsequently, the methods and results of a geodetic evaluation of the fabrication process are presented. Finally, as the close collaboration between architects, structural and geodetic engineers, and timber fabricators is integral to the process, the architectural and structural potentials of such integrative design processes are discussed.

Morphospaces of Robotic Fabrication

The research presented in this paper investigates the possible transfer of the concept of morphospaces from theoretical morphology in biology to the realm of robotic fabrication and design computation in architecture. This investigation is concerned with the search for suitable methods of differentiating between the geometrically possible and robotically fabricable in integrative computational design processes, a critical component for further developing a morphogenetic approach to design. In the first, second and third part of the paper, the relevant aspects of morphogenetic design in architecture, theoretical morphology in biology and the related distinction between empirical and theoretical morphospaces are introduced. In the fourth and fifth part, the transfer of the concept of theoretical morphospaces from biology to design computation and robotic fabrication is introduced and explained along with the research on constructing machinic morphospaces for robotic production for robotically fabricated plate structures with finger joint connections.

Crowdsourced Fabrication

In recent years, extensive research in the HCI literature has explored interactive techniques for digital fabrication. However, little attention in this body of work has examined how to involve and guide human workers in fabricating larger-scale structures. We propose a novel model of crowdsourced fabrication, in which a large number of workers and volunteers are guided through the process of building a pre-designed structure. The process is facilitated by an intelligent construction space capable of guiding individual workers and coordinating the overall build process. More specifically, we explore the use of smartwatches, indoor location sensing, and instrumented construction materials to provide real-time guidance to workers, coordinated by a foreman engine that manages the overall build process. We report on a three day deployment of our system to construct a 12-tall bamboo pavilion with assistance from more than one hundred volunteer workers, and reflect on observations and feedback collected during the exhibit.

Material computation—4D timber construction: Towards building-scale hygroscopic actuated, self-constructing timber surfaces

The implementation of active and responsive materials in architecture and construction allows for the replacement of digitally controlled mechanisms with material-based systems that can be designed and programmed with the capacity to compute and execute a behavioral response. The programming of such systems with increasingly specific response requires a material-driven computational design and fabrication strategy. This research presents techniques and technologies for significantly upscaling hygroscopically actuated timber-based systems for use as self-constructing building surfaces. The timber’s integrated hygroscopic characteristics combined with computational design techniques and existing digital fabrication methods allow for a designed processing and reassembly of discrete wood elements into large-scale multi element bilayer surfaces. This material assembly methodology enables the design and control of the encoded direction and magnitude of humidity-actuated responsive curvature at an expanded scale. Design, simulation, and material assembly tests are presented together with formal and functional configurations that incorporate self-constructing and self-rigidizing surface strategies. The presented research and prototypes initiate a shift toward a large-scale, self-construction methodology.

Development of a digital framework for the computation of complex material and morphological behavior of biological and technological systems

Research in material behavior involves the study of relationships between material composition and capacities to negotiate internal and external pressures. Tuning material composition for performance allows for the integration of multifaceted functionality and embedded responsiveness within minimal material means. The relationships of material composition and system performance can be dissected into properties of topology (in count, type and association), forces (as the simulation of contextual pressures), and materiality (material properties and constraints of fabrication). When resourcing information about these aspects of material behavior from biological or technological systems, the physical precedents, as specimens and/or models, serve as the primary, and often sole, exemplar. While this is necessary to initiate the study of material make-up as it relates to specific morphological performance, there is an inherent limit when asking how and to what degree the knowledge resourced from that instance applies when alterations from the norm are generated. This research proposes the possibility for testing variants of a morphological system using physical models as the precedent while incorporating multiple means of computational analysis for extensive exploration. The framework begins with the initial stage of deducing principles, regarding material organization and behavior, through comparative physical and computational study. Subsequently, through methods of abduction, new vocabularies of form and potentials in performance are generated primarily through computational exploration.The framework is shaped by research into the design and materialization of complex pre-stressed form- and bending-active architectures. A novel aspect of this framework is the development of a software environment called springFORM. In this environment, material behavior is simulated using basic spring-based (particle system) methods. The novel contribution of this software is in providing means for both manual and algorithmic manipulations of mesh topologies and material properties during the form-finding process. A series of architectural prototypes, which range in scale, define rules for the relationship between topological-material complexity and the sequencing of particular exploratory methods. The studies define the value of the physical precedent as it engenders further material prototypes, spring-based explorations and simulations with finite element analysis. These rules and methods are further elaborated upon through studying the particularly fascinating structural capacity of banana leaf stalks, a material system which is stiff in bending yet highly flexible in torsion. Of interest is a functional robustness which allows for the negotiation of both self-weight and wind loading for a large and fully integrated leaf structure. Methods of simulation and meta-heuristics are developed to address the continual material and topological differentiation of the banana leaf stalk. Case studies are based upon examination of specimens from the species Musa acuminata and Ensete ventricosum. Mechanical properties and geometric descriptions of isolated moments within the stalk provide the basis for computational comparison. Fundamental properties and behaviors are extracted from the plant specimens, yet a full description is not possible because of the plants intricate spatial structure. In this case, the computational means serve to elucidate upon the behavior of the complete system as well as provide avenues for exploring its variants. This paper describes an extensible and calibrated framework which can foster enhanced biomimetic insights by explorations which are based upon but extend well beyond initial biological and/or technological precedents. A physical/digital framework is developed for form- and bending-active architectures.Banana leaf stalks (petioles) are researched for their robust structural capacities.Spring-based software, called springFORM, is utilized to simulate a variety of material behaviors.The extensible and calibrated framework fosters enhanced biomimetic insights.

Robotically Fabricated Wood Plate Morphologies

Due to their relative affordability and ease of use industrial manipulators aka robots have become increasingly common in the field of architectural experimentation and research. Specifically for timber construction, their higher degrees of kinematic freedom and fabricational flexibility, compared to established and process-specific computer numerically controlled (CNC) wood working machines, allow for new design and fabrication strategies or else the reinterpretation and re-appropriation of existing techniques — both of which offer the potential for novel architectural systems. In the case study presented here an investigation into the transfer of morphological principles of a biological role model (Clypeasteroida) is initiated by the robotic implementation of a newly developed finger-joint fabrication process. In the subsequent biomimetic design process the principles are translated into a generative computational design tool incorporating structural constraints as well as those of robotic fabrication leading to a fullscale built prototype.