The installation has been developed through a collaboration between the Architectural Association (AA) Emergent Technologies & Design Post-Graduate Programme (EmTech) and BuroHappold Engineering. The brief examined the structural and geometrical properties of folded thin zinc metal sheets to create a structural form that uses minimal material to cover the terrace skylight. By utilising robotic folding techniques triangular connector components were made in a form to ease fabrication and the complexity at the joints. The geometric properties of the folds were also adjusted to control the curvature and strength of the joint whilst the robotic arm was used to progressively dent patterns into the components to stiffen up areas of high stress. The global geometry was designed for assembly without formwork and for repeatable joints to reduce the amount of material used as far as possible.
The completion of Foldform relied heavily on the established feedback loop information exchange between physical prototyping experiments and the appropriate computational simulations. The performance gaps that acted on 1:5 and 1:1 scale prototypes respectively, created an immediate need to devise a system of calibration and error prediction between the two scales. Computational simulation and analysis methods derived from physical experimentation facilitated the production of various quick tests in a relatively small scale and accurately predict their adaptation in the 1:1 scale.
CREDITS
Architectural Association (AA) Emergent Technologies & Design Post-Graduate Programme (EmTech) in collaboration with BuroHappold Engineering
EMTECH
Director: Dr. Elif Erdine
Founding Director: Dr. Michael Weinstock
Faculty: Dr. George Jeronimidis, Alican Sungur, Antiopi Koronaki, Eleana Polychronaki, Abhinav Chaudhary, Lorenzo Santelli
Students (2018-2020): Aysu Aysoy, Medha Bansal, Jia Wen Hu, Adelina Koleva, Archit Mathur, Saumil Nagar, Sri Krishna Subramanya Bhat, Yukie Takasu, Nikolai Vladimirov, Kai Yeh, Fun Yuen
Students (2019-2021): Alyina Ahmed, Mohamed Owaze Ansari, Dhwani Ramnarayan Bisani, Jong In Choi, Yousra Elshafeei, Leili Ghaemi, Maria Luiza Gomes Torres, Berin Nur Kocabas, Weiting Kong, Felipe Oeyen, John Elliot Ouchterlony, Paravee Pokawatthananurak, Devaiah Ponnimada Ashok, Debolina Ray, Maximo Tettamanzi, Yi Zhang
BUROHAPPOLD ENGINEERING
London Office Director: Justin Phillips
Director: Tim Kelly
Senior Engineer: Nicolo Bencini