Earthen Shells and Robotic Fabrication seminar at IAAC Barcelona - Results

Earthen Shells, Innochain Research

MSc Arch. Stephanie Chaltiel has been kind enough to share with us the output of one of her fabrication workshops at IAAC within the InnoChain PhD research program.

This seminar was based on exploring earthen monolithic shells fabrication methods with iterative 3D scanning at different stages of the structures’s edification. The resulting 3D scans were used in Rhino to perform some structural (Karamba) and passive ventilation (RhinoCFD) simulations.

Grasshopper/Karamba were used to extract the stress lines, giving the opportunity for reinforcement features. Karamba was also used to detect areas of the shell working primarily in tension or in compression and associate thickness variations of the shell.

The simulations results translated into design opportunities of the earthen shells, resulting in unique aesthetics. Resin robotic pouring was explored and different finishes resulted by varying angle, speed, and distance to the surface robotic parameters on the Grasshopper/KUKA/prc software.

At the end of the seminar, students presented their shells to the Jury members - Verena Vogler (McNeelEurope), Vincent Chavy (UniversalRobotsBarcelona) and Amadeo Monreal (UPC-Mathematics) - who provided useful feedback.

Participants: 12 students from year 1 of the IAAC Master in Advanced Architecture
Tutors: Stephanie Chaltiel, Abdullah Ibrahim, Noor El-Gewely
Advisor for CFD and Augmented Reality: Angelos Chronis

Stephanie would like to specially thank Maite Bravo (Iaac) for her very rich input in the seminar, as well as the Jury members.


Posted Jul 17, 2017 by Elena Caneva on Rhino News, etc.