Ornamental Plate Shell Structures

摘要

The development of digital technologies in the last twenty years has led to an unprecedented formal freedom in design and in the representation in virtual space. Combining non-standard geometry with CAD tools enables a new way of expression and realization of architectural ideas and conceptions. But the transformation of a virtual double-curved surface into a buildable physical structure and object is always accompanied by huge costs and big problems like geometric and statical ones. With this work we propose a method how to transfer a double curved surface into a cost-efficient buildable shell structure consisting of planar building elements derived from tangent planes and based on ornamental discretization. This approach should also serve as a geometric basis for an interface whereby a user can transfer his designed ornamental 2D-pattern onto a desired freeform. The novel process in our work is that we take the surface curvature at local points into account. This solves former problems which occurred when intersecting the tangent planes. Additionally local control of the spatial ornamental structure is provided.The load bearing system is organized in a way so that the forces are distributed along the edges of the plane elements. A structure with plane elements supports a high stiffness in combination with a relatively small overall weight. This is due to the smooth curved shape of the geometry.