All of these experimentation have been shown on the 22nd of May at the final presentations of the seminar “lightweight structures 1:1″ at IAAC.

The aim of the seminar, led by Silvia Brandi and Rodrigo Rubio, with the collaboration of Pepe Ballestero (ETSAM Prototipolab) and Maria Kupstova, was to build four lightweight structures using structural fabric, within the format of an intensive workshop.

For the development of the project the course counted on the partnership of Serge Ferrari company, which provided the high-performance fabric Stamisol FT 371-3048 and Stamisol FT 381-3128.

The seminar has been developed in two sessions of three days each: in the first one four groups have been formed around four research topics: tensegrity structures, tensile structures, pure tension structures and fibrous structures.

During the first phase each group developed a project proposal and went trough some material testing and prototyping. During the second phase the construction of the four pavilions has been carried out in IAAC.

At the final presentation the students presented their projects to the jury board, formed by Ramon Sastre, tensile structure expert by ETSAV-UPC, Carmelo Zappulla, IAAC Faculty and principal of External Reference, Areti Markopoulou, MAA Director, together with the IAAC Alumni and Staff Mathilde Marengo, Dori Sadan and Moe Beagle.

The aim of the Seminar is to realize lightweight spatial installations (embedding textile materials) that are demountable, digitally fabricated, and eventually performative.

The students have formed 4 different groups, each one working on a different structural prototype implementation. In these first 3 days of the seminar each group worked their concept design, testing the structural capacities through the production of small scale prototypes.

The course counts on the collaboration of the company SERGE FERRARI, an international producer of flexible composite materials and membranes of high performances for architecture, who will provide the material for the construction.

There is a trend in architecture and structural engineering towards more and more lightweight structures, as such structures are not only elegant but also minimizing the use of material. They are sustainable in the true sense. An inherent feature of lightweight structures is their tendency to be lively. Numerous exciting and breath taking structures such as membrane roofs, cable net structures and cable-supported footbridges have been built and they all require additional engineering efforts, regarding dynamics. Early lightweight footbridges have caused comfort problems for the users. Today engineers have learnt their lessons from several disasters and have included “dynamics” in the curriculum of engineering students. At our chair at the Technical University Berlin (TU Berlin) it has become an important research aspect. Beyond passive tuned mass dampers, investigation on semi-active vibration control will enable us to go beyond present limits towards more lightweight and elegant, more sustainable structures.

Tuesday 29th of October 2013

Arndt Goldack

Lecture: Dynamic Lightweight Structures
@ 19.30, IAAC Auditorium
Open to the Public

Dr.-Ing. Arndt Goldack  was born in 1969 in Stuttgart, Germany. In 1996 he graduated in civil and structural engineering at the University of Stuttgart, and in 2004 Awarded Doctorate (Dr.-Ing.), Thesis “Structural behavior and Bracing of High Rise Tubes for Solar Updraft Towers”.

From 1996 to 2003 he was a Research assistant at the Institute for Structural Design with Prof. Jörg Schlaich and Prof. Werner Sobek, University of Stuttgart.

In 2003 he then commenced as Structural Engineer with schlaich bergermann und partner, Berlin, Stuttgart, until 2011. During this time he contributed to projects in China, Germany, India, Spain, USA:

- Stress ribbon bridge “Slinky springs to fame”, Oberhausen

- Membrane roof for Estadio Madrid La Peineta

- Gänsebachtal Bridge: Integral Bridge for High Speed Trains, length 1001m

- Cable Stayed Bridge crossing Yamuna River in New Delhi, India: span 250m

- Independent Review of the Second Vivekananda Bridge in Kolkata, extradosed bridge

- Lufthansa A380 Service Hall in Frankfurt

- Dynamic design of almost all footbridges by sbp

- Research Project: Design of Lightweight Footbridges for Human Induced Vibrations, Goldack et. al., JRC-ECCS 2009 in cooperation with University of Porto, TU Delft and RWTH Aachen.

Since July 2011 he has been a Researcher at the Chair of Conceptual and Structural Design, TU Berlin, studying the dynamics of bridges, pedestrian induced vibration, experimental modal analysis, lightweight structures, lightweight concrete, structural control.