Designing elastic transformable structures: Towards soft responsive architecture

Abstract

This paper discusses the issues of designing and building environment involving spatial conditions that can be physically reconfigured to meet changing needs. To achieve this architectural vision, most current research focuses on the kinetic, mechanical systems and physical control mechanisms for actuation and structural transformation. Instead of the 'hard' mechanical joints and components, there is an unexplored 'soft' approach using lightweight elastic composite materials for designing responsive architectural skins and structures. This paper investigates the new possibilities for the manipulation of various architectural enclosures using 'soft' and elastic transformable structures, in response to environmental, communication and adapting to various contexts. This approach intends to minimise the mechanistic actuations and reduce weight for such operations. Therefore, this research introduces two modules (a tetrahedron and a cube) as responsive spatial models to test the potentials and limitations for the implementation of elastic materials with responsive capability towards reconfigurable architectural enclosure. Despite their individual differences, these experiments identify a trajectory for new possibilities for elastic architectural components that are more appropriate for 'soft' responsive architecture. We argue that this approach can provide an early hypothesis for design responsive architecture with a mix of passive and active design strategies. ©2011, Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA).