Zero-waste, flat pack truss work: An investigation of responsive structuralism

Abstract

The direct and rapid connections between scripting, modeling and prototyping allow for investigations of computation in fabrication. The manipulation of planar materials with twodimensional CNC cuts can easily create complex and varied forms, volumes, and surfaces. However, the bulk of research on folding using CNC fabrication tools is focused upon surfaces, self-supporting walls and shell structures, which do not integrate well into more conventional building construction models. This paper attempts to explain the potential for using folding methodologies to develop structural members through a design-build process. Conventional building practice consists of the assembly of off-the-shelf parts. Many times, the plinth, skeleton, and skin are independently designed and fabricated, integrating multiple industries. Using this method of construction as an operative status quo, this investigation focused on a single structural component: the truss. A truss is defined as: "A triangulated arrangementof structural members that reduces nonaxial external forces to a setof axial forces in its members." (Allen and Iano 2004) Using folding methodologies and sheet steel to create a truss, this design investigation employed a recyclable and prolific building material to redefine the fabrication of a conventional structural member. The potential for using digital design and two-dimensional CNC fabrication tools in the design of a foldable truss from sheet steel is viable in the creation of a flat-packed, minimal waste structural member that can adapt to a variety of aesthetic and structural conditions. Applying new methods to a componentof the conventional 'kitof parts' allowed for a novel investigation that recombines zero waste goals, flat-packing potential, structural expression and computational processes.