Pavilions Of "biological Origin"

2024 Author: David Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-09 00:55

At the Federal Garden Exhibition (Bundesgartenschau - BUGA), which is now taking place in Heilbronn, Germany (this large-scale biennial of landscape architecture has been held in different cities of the country since 1993), among other exhibits, pavilions of "biological origin" have appeared. One is made of wood, the other is made of composite fiber. Lightweight structures that can withstand heavy loads are designed and built by the University of Stuttgart departments - the Institute for Computational Design (ICD) and the Institute for Building Construction and Structural Design (ITKE). Using the example of these two structures, scientists demonstrated the impact of digital technologies on the construction and architecture of the future.

The wooden pavilion is a 7-meter canopy, folded according to the principle of a three-dimensional puzzle. The design was inspired by the shell of a sea urchin, whose morphology has been studied by a multidisciplinary team over the past ten years.

• 

  

  1/3 Wooden pavilion BUGA © ICD / ITKE University of Stuttgart

• 

  2/3 Wooden pavilion BUGA © ICD / ITKE University of Stuttgart

• 

  3/3 Wooden Pavilion BUGA © ICD / ITKE University of Stuttgart

The casing is assembled from 376 polygonal segments made of LVL. Each such segment is a kind of hollow "box" with a large hole in the bottom wall. The hole gives access to hidden connections inside the "box" during assembly.

• 

  1/3 Wooden pavilion BUGA © ICD / ITKE University of Stuttgart

• 

  2/3 Wooden pavilion BUGA © ICD / ITKE University of Stuttgart

• 

  3/3 Wooden pavilion BUGA © ICD / ITKE University of Stuttgart

The components are held together with a finger joint, much like the plates that form the shell of a sea urchin. Waterproofing is provided by a layer of EPDM rubber. The bearing capacity of such a structure is 36.8 kg / m².

All stages of production - from assembly of a structure to quality control - are fully automated and controlled by two million lines of computer code. A robotic platform was created specifically for the project, which produced parts for polyhedron bodies and assembled them together.

Milling one segment took 20-40 minutes and assembling about eight. The entire pavilion was erected in 10 working days. All elements of the canopy are designed for reuse, which means that the pavilion can be picked up from BUGA and "deployed" anywhere else.

The wooden tent provides good acoustics, concerts and other public events can be held here. It looks especially atmospheric at night, when thousands of LED lamps light up in the holes provided.

• 

  

  1/3 Wooden pavilion BUGA © Roland Halbe

• 

  2/3 Wooden pavilion BUGA © Roland Halbe

• 

  3/3 Wooden pavilion BUGA © Roland Halbe

The second pavilion from ICD and ITKE, which adorns the Heilbronn exhibition, is made of synthetic fiber composites. In the animal kingdom, scientists explain, most of the supporting structures also consist of fiber composites: cellulose, chitin, collagen. A feature of such “structures” is their precise “calibration”: in living organisms, the structure, direction and density of constructs are “calculated” so that the “consumption” of the material is minimized and strictly justified.

• 

  1/3 BUGA Composite Fiber Pavilion © ICD / ITKE University of Stuttgart

• 

  2/3 BUGA Composite Fiber Pavilion © ICD / ITKE University of Stuttgart

• 

  3/3 BUGA Composite Fiber Pavilion © ICD / ITKE University of Stuttgart

Researchers transferred this biological principle to architecture, and chose fiberglass and carbon fiber as building materials. More than 150,000 meters of such fibers were used for the pavilion.

• 

  1/3 BUGA Composite Fiber Pavilion © ICD / ITKE University of Stuttgart

• 

  2/3 BUGA Composite Fiber Pavilion © ICD / ITKE University of Stuttgart

• 

  3/3 BUGA Composite Fiber Pavilion © ICD / ITKE University of Stuttgart

The frame is formed by 60 "beams" made of composite fiber; robots spent from four to six hours to make one. The top of the grille is completely covered with a transparent ETFE membrane. The pavilion covers an area of about 400 m².

The experimental structure looks extremely light, and in fact it is: it weighs about five times less than a similar structure made of steel. The pavilion is capable of withstanding a load of 7.6 kg / m².

The project demonstrates how years of research into biological principles, combined with the latest computing technology, can lead to a truly modern building system. Just a few years ago, such a pavilion could not have been designed or built.