Miura Ori based curved surface origami structures

I have been researching Miura pattern origami as a structural solution for rapidly deployable structures. Miura ori are interesting as structures due to their ability to develop from a flat surface to a 3D form, and become fully rigid, with no degrees of freedom, once constrained at certain points. Physical and digital experiments with Miura Ori have taught me that certain topographies can be generated by developing a modified Miura pattern. With the help of Tomohiro Tachi’s excellent research on the subject of curved Miura ori, including his Freeform Origami simulator (http://www.tsg.ne.jp/TT/index.html) I have learned that Miura ori surfaces that curve in the X and Y axes can be generated by modifying the tessellating components, however these modifications require some flexibility in the material, or looseness of the hinges. As a system for a rapidly deployable structure, I am most interested in the potential for the modified Miura ori to work as a structure built with cheap, readily available sheet materials which are generally planar, so I will continue to develop this system as a rigid panel system with loose hinges that can be tightened after the structure is deployed. In order to test the crease pattern’s ability to form a curved surface, I have defined a component within the Miura pattern that can tessellate with itself. The radius of this component’s developed surface is measured as it is gradually altered.

With the objective being to develop a system for the construction of a rapidly deployable structure, I have also been interested in understanding the Miura ori’s characteristics as it is developed from flat. Physical and digital tests were performed to determine the system’s willingness to take on a curve as its crease angles decrease from flat sheet to fully developed. I found the tightest radius was achieved rapidly as the sheet was folded, with the radius angle reaching a plateau. This is interesting from the perspective of one with the desire to create a structure that has a predictable surface topography, as well as from a material optimisation standpoint; the target topography can be achieved without the wasteful deep creases of an almost fully developed Miura ori. With the learnings of the modified Miura ori tests in mind, a simple loose hinged cylinder is simulated. As the pattern returns on itself and is fastened, the degrees of freedom are removed and the structure is fully rigid. A physical model of the system was constructed with rigidly planar MDF panels and fabric hinges. The hinges were flexible enough to allow the hinge movement necessary in developing this particular modified Miura ori, however some of the panels’ corners peeled away from the fabric backing as the system was developed from flat. A subsequent test will seek to refine this hinge detail, with a view to creating a scalable construction detail that will allow sufficient flexibility during folding, as well as strength once in final position.

John Konings

j.e.konings@gmail.com

The Regent Street Windows Project 2013

A big THANK YOU to all the DS10 students (past and present) that helped installing the MAGIC GARDEN for the Regent Street Windows project 2013 at the Karen Millen store!

>> You can now vote online on the Building Design blog for your favourite window.

>> You can also vote on Facebook

Here are some pictures of the installation night:

Arthur Mamou-Mani sitting with Jack Munro Discussing the Karen Millen Project photo by AgneseSanvito

The first part of the Karen Millen installation by Mamou-Mani Photo by AgneseSanvito

“The Shell” One of my favourite part of the project at the very end of Prince’s Street.

Jessica Beagleman, Andrei Jippa, Saraj Shuttleworth and Savvas Havatzias helping to set-up “the sky”

Andrei Jippa, Michael Clarke, Christopher Mount, Jack Munro, Jacob Alsop setting up the main “gate” at the Karen Millen Store

Andrei Jippa stuck in a strange fabric animal

MOOM Tensegritic Membrane Structure (Noda) by Kazuhiro Kojima

Architectural students at the Tokyo University of Science developed an experimental, extremely lightweight, load-bearing structure for a temporary pavilion. The 26-metre-long, up to 7,5-metre-wide and 4,25-metre-high volume is self-supporting and comprises only two kinds of component: the metal bearing elements and a delicate space-enclosing skin consisting of an 0,7-mm membrane of elastic polyester fabric. The membrane is drawn over metal tubes that create a tensegrity system and forms the tension element. The 131 compression bars are 25-mm diameter aluminum tubes of various lengths and there is no contact between them; instead, they are connected to the skin by sliding the ends into sheaths sewn on. The membrane is anchored at the base like a conventional tent with pegs consisting of aluminum tubes with tips pressed together to form a point. The compression members are pushed into these pegs and fixed in position by means of steel pins. With a weight of only 600 kg, this airy structure covers a ground area of 146 square meters. The pavilion was erected by 70 students in a single day. Initially, they laid out the ready tailored skin, then slid the tubular members into the sheaths. The overall structure was tensioned on all sides, pushed upwards at the same time in the interior and finally fixed to the ground. The convex and concave forms resulting from this create an animated surface and a lively interplay of light and shade. Since the membrane screens off 80% of the UV radiation, but allows 50% of the daylight to pass through, the softly filtered light creates a fascinating spatial impression internally. When illuminated, the translucent pavilion has the appearance of a lighted sculpture.

Via Archetipo

Stick and Fabric Evolution through Physical testing

Below is a pictorial timeline of how my Burning Man project has progressed and developed through physical modelling. It began with a regular grid which has developed to be able to control the parameters (such as column length and fabric tension) to create an arched structure. The form proposed for the Burning Man Festival is a double Arched system, which works with the axis of the Playa. (see portfolio for further explanation)

Knitting in Architecture.

Every year in early September, as graduate students at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles put the finishing touches on their thesis projects, a Sci-Arc faculty member and students prepare a temporary pavilion for the annual graduation ceremony. This year consisting of 45,000 linear feet of knitted rope, 6000 linear feet of tube steel, and 3000 square feet of fabric shade louvers, the pavilion creates a sail-like canopy of rope and fabric that floats above the audience. With its fabric louvers tilted toward the western sky, the canopy is designed to provide shade for the specific date and time.

Netscape utilizes a double layer of netting in varying configurations to create a three-dimensional field of billowing shade louvers. Based on a conventional knitting technique, like that used in the making of a sweater, the pavilion exploits the malleability of this technique as it stretches to conform to the three-dimensional shape of the structure. Unlike a conventional net, the knitting technique is not fixed at its intersections, allowing the shape of the nets (and their grids) to contort both at the upper and the lower surface. With the nets contorting differently, the shade louvers that are stretched between them become a dynamic field of fabric, twisting and bending in order to span across the space in between.

Design of the project involved an elaborate back and forth between digital and analog systems of investigation. With engineering done by Nous Engineering, analysis of the tension in the nets provided constant feedback that informed the shape and three-dimensionality of the structure, as well as some basic form-finding for the nets. As the project progressed, however, large three-dimensional models provided a means of studying the behavior of the grids and their resulting geometries.

With the shade louvers designed to block the setting sun in the west, the view from inside the pavilion offers a dramatically different experience. The three-dimensionality of the double-layered netting reaches depths of about 10’, and becomes open and porous when facing eastward into the complex three-dimensional field of fabric and rope.

Manuel A. Báez – Crystal & Flame: Form and Process

“Manuel A. Báez is an Associate Professor at Carleton University, Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism, where he is also the Coordinator of Crossings Inerdisciplinary Research and the Director of the Carleton De-Formation Research Unit. Previously, he worked and practiced in New York City while teaching at the Architecture Schools at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and the Rhode Island School of Design.

His work as an architect, artist and researcher draws inspiration from the generative potential of the forms, structures and integrative systems generated by elemental processes that exist throughout the natural environment. His educational concerns, interests and objectives are focused on the development of teaching methods and procedures derived from the research.”

Below are some images of his work, students work and his TED lecture. He explores the “malleability of weaved bamboo cells assembled as a fabric” and produces beautiful thin and delicate generative structures.

 Above: ©Manuel A. Báez, Suspended Animation: Coiled serpent, from the Phenomenological Garden Installation , Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bamboo dowels & rubber bands.   Fabrication from membrane assembled with square cellular units. 

Above: ©Manuel A. Báez Crossings Workshop, Suspended Animation Series: Cellular Forms Studies.  Work from the Crossings Workshop by Diana Park using heptagonal cellular units casting shadows on wall. 

Above: ©Manuel A. Báez, Phenomenological Garden Installation, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bamboo dowels & rubber bands.  Two columns are transformed into an intricately patterned ceiling structure.  Emergent patterns are revealed as one walks around the installation or, as shown in Fig. 2, as one looks at the reflected ceiling.  Fabrication from membrane assembled with square cellular units.  

Above: ©Manuel A. Báez, Crossings Workshop Exhibition, Suspended Animation Series: Cellular Forms Studies, Koussevitzky Art Gallery, Berkshire Community College, Pittsfield, MA, Bamboo dowels & rubber bands.  Works by Crossings Workshop students using membranes assembled from cellular units. 

Above:  ©Manuel A. Báez Crossings Workshop, Suspended Animation Series: “Torus”, Cellular Forms Studies, Bamboo dowels & plastic tubing.  Work from the Crossings Workshop by Natalia Kukleva using square cellular units, 6′ – 0″ diameter.  Top: side view, bottom: view from above.