Architecture, Structures and Construction最新文献

Standard wood bending approachesrely either on heavy industrial processes optimized for repeatability or on crafting techniques that are mostly intended for the production of small-scale products. Contemporary research focuses on digital fabrication methods to overcome geometrical limitations and automate freeform wood construction without the need for highly specialized craftsmanship. The presented research focuses on robotic zip-bending to achieve custom curved wood elements with structural properties. The technique uses kerfing patterns applied to two layers of planar wood elements to achieve a zipped composite with precomputed bending and twisting behaviour. The article describes the entire workflow from initial material studies to the realization of a robotically-made 1:1 structural installation. The involved methods, such as mechanical testing, geometrical form-finding, structural FEA simulation, CNC robot programming, and 3D scanning, are described with extensive qualitative analysis and quantitative data. The work demonstrates robotic zip-bending’s structural and geometrical capabilities for prospective applications in the construction industry, including suggestions for future research developments.

Advances in cognitive science have important if unexplored implications for the design of the built environment. These findings have yet to be introduced, much less applied in architectural education. Architectural education must change not only to meet the urgent demands of the climate crisis and environmental sustainability, but also to actively promote human and more than human health and well being. Research from the cognitive and behavioural sciences has much to contribute to this mandate. This paper proposes practical ways that the findings of 4E cognition—which holds that cognition is embodied, embedded, enacted and extended—can be integrated in educational settings through embodied and immersive teaching, in-depth cross-disciplinary research and experimental making and evaluation.

Structural art should not be marginalised as an integral part of structural design. By reviewing historical understandings of structural art, this article discusses the ambiguous and neglected perspective of structural art on architectural design and human perception dimensions, concentrating the attention of structural art on the question of human aesthetic perception. Based on significant changes in how art is perceived due to recent neuroaesthetics research, this article introduces recent findings from cognitive neuroscience regarding embodied perception principles, sheds new light on the aesthetic experiences inherent in the built environment, and clarifies and expands previously held beliefs about structural art. Finally, while emphasising the significance of structural art, this article attempts to provide a body-informed perspective on structural art that can aid in incorporating human neuroaesthetic perception principles during the conceptual phase of the structural design process, thereby redefining the effect of structures on architectural space and aesthetics, thus redefining structural art.

The connections of a spatial truss structure play a critical role in the safe and efficient transfer of axial forces between members. For discrete connections, they can also improve construction efficiency by acting as registration devices that lock members in precise orientations. As more geometrically complex spatial trusses are enabled by computational workflows and the demand for material-efficient spanning systems, there is a need to understand the effects of global form on the demands at the connections. For large-scale structures with irregular geometry, customizing individual nodes to meet exact member orientations and force demands may be infeasible; conversely, standardizing all connections results in oversized nodes and a compromise in registration potential. We propose a method for quantifying the complexity of spatial truss designs by the variation in nodal force demands. By representing nodal forces as a geometric object, we leverage the spherical harmonic shape descriptor, developed for applications in computational geometry, to characterize each node by a rotation and translation-invariant fixed-length vector. We define a complexity score for spatial truss design by the variance in the positions of the feature vectors in higher-dimensional space, providing an additional performance metric during early stage design exploration. We then develop a pathway towards reducing complexity by clustering nodes with respect to their feature vectors to reduce the number of unique connectors for design while minimizing the effects of mass standardization.

This research reports on numerical and experimental methods for the use of post-tensioning with brittle ceramic extrusions. It proposes a novel construction approach, including new joint typologies, and demonstrates the viability of ceramic as a primary structural material in a bending-active context through two pavilion-scale prototypes. The research proceeded in three distinct phases. First, relevant material properties —compressive strength, bending strength, modulus—were determined experimentally. Next, several post-tensioned beam prototypes were tested to examine the interaction between post-tensioning steel and ceramic, understand failure modes, and refine construction details. Finally, two post-tensioned prototypes were designed based on these findings, the Vierendeel Arch and the Hypar Tower. The design process for each prototype involved a novel digital workflow that utilized multiple parametric models to generate and analyze global design geometry, link to structural analysis software, discretize the forms into components based on available stock sizes, accommodate for assembly tolerances, and generate component cut lists. The prototypes behaved as predicted, demonstrating that post-tensioning can successfully control bending stresses in ceramic extrusions, and introducing entirely new applications for the material.

In the last decade, various types of transformable building structures have been developed, such as deployable tensegrity, scissor-like and origami-inspired systems, as well as reconfigurable rigid-bar linkage and adaptive compliant structures. The development of the systems owns to advances in material design and kinetics, while aiming at an improved sustainability of the built environment. Their conceptualization and investigation have been enabled through associative parametric design and numerical analysis facilities that meanwhile provide robust digital visualizations and numerical analysis models. In principle, responsive building structures are capable to adapt to changing functional, loading, or environmental conditions. At university level, the integrated architectural design that involves an integrative development of the building form, functions and technical system parameters is increasingly enriched by performance-based design approaches through interdisciplinary experimentation and design-driven research, i.e., ‘integrated interdisciplinary design’, for the achievement of efficiency, sustainability and technological innovation in architecture. The paper discusses related influencing modes and preliminary design results of an integrated interdisciplinary approach driven by aspects of modularity, flexibility, transportability, deployability, adaptivity and interactivity, as well as their implications towards a framework of related research. The design projects presented have been supervised by the authors in recent years at the University of Cyprus and the University of Stuttgart. In all cases, the design methodology followed enables students to consider related morphological, functional and structural requirements, while being exposed to transformable building structures as related to aspects of materiality, functionality, sustainability and aesthetics.

Abstract

Masonry has superior fire resistance properties stemming from its inert characteristics, and slow degradation of mechanical properties. However, once exposed to fire conditions, masonry undergoes a series of physio-chemical changes. Such changes are often described via temperature-dependent material models. Despite calls for standardization of such models, there is a lack in such standardized models. As a result, available temperature-dependent material models vary across various fire codes and standards. In order to bridge this knowledge gap, this paper presents three methodologies, namely, regression-based, probabilistic-based, and the use of artificial neural (ANN) networks, to derive generalized temperature-dependent material models for masonry with a case study on the compressive strength property. Findings from this paper can be adopted to establish updated temperature-dependent material models of fire design and analysis of masonry structures.

The mass timber industry offers a compelling pathway for low-carbon structural systems in buildings, replacing carbon-intensive materials like concrete and steel with sustainably forested wood. However, conventional structural connections in mass timber construction are largely made of metallic materials, such as screws, nails, and plates. In contrast, joinery, or geometrically interlocking all-timber connections, is globally prevalent in historic timber construction. This paper investigates the potential of applying joinery, specifically the “Nuki” mortise-and-tenon joinery connection, to contemporary mass timber construction from perspectives of structural behavior and carbon savings. Considering single spans supporting one-way cross-laminated timber (CLT) floor systems at the mid-rise residential scale, carbon savings ranging from 7 to 40% are possible at the beam-joint scale by using Nuki joints instead of steel concealed beam hangers, a more conventional mass timber connection. While these savings are smaller at the building scale, the paper nevertheless demonstrates a methodology and results for quantitatively comparing the scale of savings achieved by implementing this historic but contemporarily alternative connection type.