BIODYNAMIC STRUCTURES

I have just finished (last week) a very intensive 12 day workshop that was part of the Architectural Association of London’s Global Traveling Summer School.  The AA’s Emergent Technologies department combined with CCA’s technology and architecture faculty and a whole host of visiting faculty from all over the world.  Named Biodynamic Structures, it was a crash course in responsive architecture taken from a biomimetic stand point.  The first half was intensive workshops in Grasshopper, Arduino, Firefly, Kangaroo, and VB.net combined with amazing lectures from Michael Weinstock (EmTec Director), George Jeronomedes (EmTec Director), Andy Payne (Lift Architects), Jason Kelly Johnson (Future Cities Lab), Craig Scott (IwamotoScott), Thom Faulders (Faulders Studio), Andrew Kudless (Matsys), Daniel Seagraves (Adrian Smith Architects), Tomas McKeag (CCA Faculty) and Ila Berman (Dean of Architecture, CCA).  The latter half was focused on solving a design problem by altering any part of the CCA building envelope according to the emergent, bottom-up logic that we had been learning about in lectures.  The whole workshop ended with an exhibition and celebration in the evening culminating in discussion led by faculty, students and exhibition visitors. 

The participant body ranged from first time students to architecture professors to professionals working in the field.  The sense of camaraderie and help that was given throughout was great.  No information was kept private if it could help another team and the work showed it.

Have a look at the flickr site.

WHAT WE DID

My own team was made up of Amir Shahrokhi, Shaunt Yemenjian, Miguel Sanchez-Hernandez, and Phil Handley. We toyed with various different systems to implement on the building envelope, but eventually settled on an adaptive shading canopy to hang at about 40 feet in the courtyard at CCA.   The logic of this was taken from a photonastic response seen in the Oxalis Triangularis plant.

Drawing by Phil Handley

The goal was to allow the system to spread in full sun and fold away when not needed. It was important to do it in a way that dispersed the light and reduce the intense glare creating a more ambient light condition.

Drawings by Shaunt Yemenjian

We struggled with various different materials and systems but all agreed an integrated material approach was preferable. This led us away from laminated composites, and spring-loaded resistance elements towards origami and simple folding mechanisms.



Drawing by Phil Handley

By closing the small distance in the middle using a simple armature on a servo we could close the whole unit through an inbuild gear system. Light sensors mounted on each unit varied the input of data into the servo, which was translated into a certain degree of rotation. An articulated joint allowed the rotation to be translated into the linear motion that opened and closed the unit.

Drawing by Phil Handley

The matrix of units was suspended on a diagrid net of 1/16th inch steel wire. Using Ecotect we mapped average light conditions throughout the 3D space of the courtyard. We then used that data to determine the size and location of each unit to provide maximum shading where it was needed most. To overcome the fact that the sun is always moving, we attached high torque servos to each corner of the net and created a script that pulled at variable rates in relation to the sun’s location. This technique allows a second layer of hierarchy to the system, and further contributes to the adaptable nature of the shading device.

Drawing by Phil Handley

The final model iteration was this.

Drawings by Amir Shahrokhi