Andrew Kudless
MA Dissertation
2003 – 04
The central aim of the research is the development of a material system with a high degree of integration between its design and performance. This integration is inherent to natural material systems for they have been developed through evolutionary means which intricately tie together the form, growth, and behaviour of the organism. In industrial material systems, the level of integration is far lower resulting in wide and potentially problematic gaps between how the system is made, what it looks like, and how it actually performs in an environment. This research explores strategies of integration for a particular industrially produced material system for use in architectural applications.
This research develops a honeycomb system that is able to adapt to diverse performance requirements through the modulation of the system’s inherent geometric and material parameters while remaining within the limits of available production technologies. The project is based on the desire to form an integrated and generative design strategy based on a biomimetic approach to architectural design and fabrication.
The system developed in this research is not meant as a replacement to the designer nor an automation of the design process, but rather it presents an open framework through which the designer can work, enabling a more integral relationship between the various conflicting and overlapping issues in the development of an architectural project. The research represents a tool, waiting to be actively used with specific project data and embedded in a built artifact.
