Building envelope adapting from and to the wind flow

Abstract

The paper presents research for wind-responsive architecture. The main objective is the digital design methodology incorporating the dynamic, fluctuating wind flow into the shape-generating process of architectural envelopes. These computational studies are advanced and informed through physical prototyping models, allowing a hybrid method approach. The negative impacts of the wind at the building scale (wind loads), as well as urban scale (wind discomfort), can be avoided and even transformed into an advantage by incorporating the local wind conditions to the process of creating architectural envelopes with adaptive structures. The paper proposes a tensegrity-membrane system which, when exposed to the dynamic wind flow, enables a local passive shape adaptation. Thus, the action of the wind pressure transforms the shape of the building envelope to an unsmoothed, dimpled surface. As a consequence, the aerodynamic properties of the building are modified, which contributes to reducing wind suction and drag force. Moreover, the slight shape change materializes and articulates the immaterial wind phenomena. For a better understanding of the dynamic geometric properties, one unit of the wind-responsive envelope is tested through simulations, and through physical prototypes. The idea and material-geometric studies are subsequently applied in a specific case study, including a designed building envelope in an industrial silo cluster in Stockholm.