Shape-changing tensegrity-membrane building skin

Abstract

Building skins are persistently exposed to changes in the weather, including the cases of weather extremes, increasing in frequency due to global climate change. As a consequence of the advancements of digital design tools, the integration of the weather conditions into the design process is much smoother. The impact of the ambient conditions on buildings and their structures can be digitally analyzed as early as in the conceptual design stage. These new design tools stimulate original ideas for shape-changing building skins, actively reacting to the dynamic weather conditions. In the paper, a digital design method is introduced, leading towards the design of a building skin, able of the passive shape adaptation when subjected to the wind. The designed building skin consists of a tensegrity structure where the tensioned elements are substituted by a tensile membrane, creating a self-equilibrated building skin element. In the previous research, a small prototype of this wind-adaptive element was created. The computer simulations are employed to predict the adaptive behavior of a bigger, full-scale building skin element. The before-mentioned building envelope becomes an active player in its surrounding environment, passively reacting to the wind in real-time, thanks to the geometric and material properties. Due to the local shape changes caused by the wind force, the wind can be perceived unconventionally through the adaptive building structure.