Digital to physical development of a reconfigurable modular formwork for concrete casting and assembling of a shell structure
Date
2019ISSN
0926-5805Source
Automation in ConstructionVolume
106Google Scholar check
Metadata
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This paper demonstrates an integrated computational design and fabrication workflow, implemented in actual construction scale, in order to test its feasibility towards a productive and customizable manufacturing process. The project suggests the computational development and the semi-automated fabrication of a free-form shell structure that consists of customized concrete members. The development process is based on two pillars of investigation that are bi-directionally connected the computational design optimization and the fabrication. The first part of investigation refers to the form-finding of the overall shell structure, as well as its structural members by using topology optimization principles. The second part deals with the development of a reconfigurable modular formwork, which adapts to all shape alternations of the structural components, enabling their effective fabrication by using a single mechanism. Within this framework, decisions taken in the optimization stage are evaluated based on limitations and potentials of the suggested formwork, whose reconfigurability influences fabrication outcomes and vice versa.