Catenary curve is the curve that an idealized hanging chain or cable assumes under its own weight when supported only at its ends. While freely hanging catenaries have more often than not elastic physical properties, we decided to explore the abilities of fiberglass rods acting as catenary arches, partially mimicking Gaudi’s research.

Fiberglass rods, despite their small cross-sectional diameter, have an inherent ability to return to their original flattened state after mechanical deformation has been applied to them. Thus, to make this experiment possible we attempted to develop the above mentioned side supports of the arch and make them kinetics, to further allow unconstrained movement of the arch along its longitudinal axis.

The most efficient mechanism that facilitates the “flattening” movement of the arch is the hinge-joint. Due to the high precision of the 3D-printing techniques we were able to create a kinetic joint that consists of a “plug-fork” element that fits into the base, a pin, and a top “hollow cone” element that houses one end of the fiberglass rod.  The pin connection allows relative rotation of the two elements only along the axis of the pin-hole. The two holes of the “fork” and “cone” assembly are bolted and can be considered as fully constrained. Having an identical 3D-printed joint assembly at each end of the 30 cm long fiberglass rod allowed for a numerous number of designs and various configurations.

_STATE 01_ VERTICAL_all rods are in a vertical position. The bending degree of each rod is defined by the pre cut tracks and slots on the plywood base. A series of 18 rods takes on 3 degrees of extremes formed by the “colonnade” of catenary arches, each differing with vertical projection vector, while the number of rods remains the same.

_STATE 02_ FALL DOWN_ all rods fall flat onto the board, following the domino effect. This motion is possible due to the hinge nature of the 3D-printed joints that serve as connectors between the rods and base.

_STATE 03_ OVERLAPPING CATENARY_ this state emphasizes the elegant interweaving nature of the catenary arches when the hinge joint is being placed in every other neighboring slots rather than the one immediately next to it. Thus, we were able to explore the combination of both STATES 01+02, with an additional twisted fall down movement of the arch series.

The grasshopper Catenary definition was used to simulate different configurations made possible by this component system of 18 rods and 36 joints - and a board with tracks!

Whirlpool – a swirling body of water produced by the meeting of opposing currents.

Design objectives :

|| elegance

|| simplicity of the form

|| resemblance of the Gaudi’s Panton tile formal language

The “topographical” character of the tile allows for the visual and formal continuity within an assembly of an individual piece and facilitates channeling of the water through the surface of a single unit onto the neighboring units.

With the water flow being one of the dominant aspects of our design several different fluid forms have been tested with the help of a “rheotomic curves” grasshopper script, which in turn lead to the most efficient shape that closely resembles the natural phenomenon of a whirlpool.

Several convergence points have been set to incorporate the assignment constraints related to the tile edge condition, which in turn directed us towards the gradual simplification of the design and the reduction of the curve count, which increased the intensity of the water flow through the surface of the tile. The use of RhinoCam and the combination of several Milling technics allowed for the refined radial engraving finish as well as high precision of the concrete casting process.

The design of our tower was driven by several criteria: || maximization of material usage
|| repetition of a single member
|| achieving of several possible configurations

As a result of a successful implementation of the first and the second criteria, we were able to make use of 97% of the available material, consequently reaching the height of nearly 5 meters in the virtual model simulation. Nevertheless, the height of the virtual model was modeled in the “perfect world” conditions, thus not reflecting such important physical criteria as material stress capabilities and the vertical load distribution in a structure of this type. Having assembled several sections of the tower into their envisioned arrangement, we confirmed that such material as wood fails in direct correlation with the grain its cut along and the amount of stress it experiences in the thinnest joinery areas. We realized that in order to reduce the stress||strain loads in our tower we need to drastically reduce the total height of the structure and hence tackle the third design criteria, multiple configurations using a repetitive single element.

The base unit of the structure is a slightly curved uniform strip of wood that interlocks with two more identical elements to form a stiff, yet elegant triangle. Further mirrored upwards the newly formed two triangles visually mimic an “expanded metal” element, and are connected via cross-joints in the center and longitudinal joint at the vertices of the triangle. Once unified into one and rotated 30 degrees the units begin locking into each other, thus reinforcing the overall structure of the tower. Lastly, to break the uniform look of the structure we introduced the “turning torso” movement, physically rotating one third of the overall tower height by 15 degrees at each joint.

95 % use of material

Top View

Assembling pieces to form a triangle || 2 triangle form one unit || 2 units joined by cross joints

Scale Comparison

STOPMOTION