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!

In 1886 Jaume Escofet founded ESCOFET y FORTUNY, a pavement manufacturing company. Later it became Escofet y Tejero and in 1988 they won the Barcelona World Trade Fair Gold Medal.In 1906 they started producing modernist hydraulic tiles. The tiles manufactured by Escofet in conjunction with renowned architects like Lluís Domènech i Montaner and Alexandre de Riquer. The most outstanding example is Antoni Gaudí’s Hexagonal Tile for the Pedrera building interiors. An adaptation of this model was used 90 years later to pave Barcelona’s Paseo de Gracia.

Our design style is based on he typical tiles from Barcelona produced a century ago by the factories that rised in the industrial revolution.

The process started in Rhino, was developed with the help of Grasshopper, set up in RhinoCam and sent to the CNC milling machine. (milling time 2:07h)

After the cast mould was finished, it was treated with sealer and vaseline and concrete was poured in. After taking care that all the air bubbles are out, the concrete was left to dry for about 6 to 7 hours. After the cast was removed from the mould, it was polished and put in place.

——- Ruxandra // Carlos // Novak ——-

The main idea of our tower was to create the most stable and, at the same time, light structure and give it an architectural view.
We were using the triangles in a top with three horizontal elements, which provide strength and stability, joined with three vertical elements and assembled layer by layer using only this one building unit.
To make the tower more stable we joined three triangles between and make it grow in 13-18 levels, it gave feeling of vertical stream.

We also was trying to experiment with the structure of wood, playing with different holes, bending and cutting. That’s why in conclusion we had the line-cuted holes, from the both sides of horizontal element with exactly the same distance according the direction of wood fiber. It gave us possibility to bend it in a dry way and use the tension of material to fix vertical elements better.

Sviatlana Matushko,
Novak Kijac
John Alexander Giraldo Mendez