Into lightness: Furniture as Proxies for radical experimental Structural Design using Advanced Manufacturing

Carlos Banon, Felix Raspall, Hui Ping Toh

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Following the tradition of architects Charles and Ray Eames, Frank Gehry, Jean Prouvé and Greg Lynn, the paper presents research pertaining to application of structural design using furniture as proxy to understand and empirically test experimental structural hypothesis. Five state-of-the-art designs by the authors explore the opportunities and challenges in the area of structural performance, material selection and transition, mechanical properties, manufacturing process and assembly procedure. All projects investigate the load distribution through lean structure members, the proportion of supporting points on the ground with respect to material mass, the slenderness ratio of the structural member and the overall span and applied force capacity in functional load cases. This process demonstrates the effectiveness of experimental furniture design to bridge the gap between intuitive structural knowledge and digital simulations, and to provide hint on the implication of structural strategies in the field of architectural design and to solve complex challenges at the level of conceptualization, development of components and assembly workflow.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationIASS Symposium 2019 - 60th Anniversary Symposium of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures; Structural Membranes 2019 - 9th International Conference on Textile Composites and Inflatable Structures, FORM and FORCE
EditorsCarlos Lazaro, Kai-Uwe Bletzinger, Eugenio Onate
PublisherInternational Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering
Pages1317-1324
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9788412110104
StatePublished - 2019
Externally publishedYes
EventIASS Symposium 2019 - 60th Anniversary Symposium of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures; Structural Membranes 2019 - 9th International Conference on Textile Composites and Inflatable Structures, FORM and FORCE - Barcelona, Spain
Duration: 7 Oct 201910 Oct 2019

Publication series

NameIASS Symposium 2019 - 60th Anniversary Symposium of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures; Structural Membranes 2019 - 9th International Conference on Textile Composites and Inflatable Structures, FORM and FORCE

Conference

ConferenceIASS Symposium 2019 - 60th Anniversary Symposium of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures; Structural Membranes 2019 - 9th International Conference on Textile Composites and Inflatable Structures, FORM and FORCE
Country/TerritorySpain
CityBarcelona
Period7/10/1910/10/19

Keywords

  • 3D Printing
  • Additive Manufacturing
  • Form Finding
  • Furniture
  • Generative Design
  • Geometry
  • Proxies
  • Spatial Structures
  • Structural Design

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