Non-standard architecture using ornaments and plane elements

Unconventional geometric shapes and free-form smooth surfaces have always been something that architects have wanted to design and build. In the history of architecture only figurative representations of these forms could be produced and the design process was restricted by representation media and scale. The development of digital technologies in the last fifteen years has allowed a formal freedom in design and definition of non-standard architecture. Non-standard architecture produces endless series of exceptions which means that traditional tectonic processes in building technology can hardly be implemented. For architects dealing with such non-standard structures causes many problems and its implementation is a great challenge and yet many questions are unsolved. This omission leads to the inability to build non-standard architecture and opens up whole new field of basic research at the interface to applied research. The purpose of the present project is to explore a new way how non-standard architecture can be built with standard building elements, with modern building processes, material and cost efficiently. In this project we will develop a design framework, generic parametric details and make them part of the whole process from the beginning of the design to the manufacturing and at the end we will build one prototype of non-standard structure. Mass Customization and File to Factory are fundamental to our approach to non-standard architecture. The key to our approach is turning exceptions of non-standard forms to standard. As smooth geometric shapes are very tricky to manufacture with an overall great expense we will concentrate on discrete forms and surfaces which means to approximate shapes with flat panels. In doing so the focus of our discrete shaping is not triangulation and the use of three-sided panels but rather up to six-sided ones. The approach of generating smooth surfaces by discretization has the advantage of using flat elements in various forms and therefore to keep the costs down independent of the choice of material. This new framework we define is based on parametric modeling of ornamentation and its aesthetics, which we consider as a unique input to the subject matter. In other words we translate flat ornaments and patterns into complex spatial structures and surfaces and more importantly into buildable architecture using plane standard building materials (panels). Our framework is based on a set of rules which is able to produce an endless variety of different panels visually rich and complex. Parametric models will be designed as irregular three dimensional polygonal ornamental structures. Such a parametric model can be assigned to a self-supporting structure like spatial separators, ornamental walls, façade elements, shading and acoustic panels.

The creative use of new digital design tools we owe spectacular buildings such as the Kunsthaus in Graz or the Hungerburgbahn in Innsbruck, where the building envelopes consists of double curved free-form surfaces. Freeforms are shapes that offer an almost unlimited possibility to design and extend well beyond the variety of forms of sphere, cylinders or cones. Such elements are no longer constructible by ruler and compass, but with today's CAD programs most complex virtual forms can be modelled. They are of great importance for contemporary architecture but represent also a great challenge in their implementation. It goes without saying that complex implementation procedures can result in enormous costs.Within the FWF research project "Non-standard architecture with ornaments and planar elements" (L695) at the Institute for Architecture and Media (Graz University of Technology) it was an attempt to explore new approaches in terms of feasibility of free-form surfaces. A special software has been programmed which allows the architect as a user, to keep the various steps - from the initial design to the final product - as simple as possible, compact and efficient, and finally to keep the overview.A central part of this project was to develop a new geometric algorithm that allows to discretize free-form surfaces into flat parts, which follow an ornamental pattern. The flat parts approximate the curved shape. As a well-known example can be taken a football, whose flat five and six-sided polygons approximate a sphere. In this context the geometry in architecture has regained again importance, as it can offer the necessary support for the processing of new questions. For the production, the flat polygonal parts can be manufactured inexpensively by means of conventional CNC machines (computer-controlled milling machines or robots). For the practical part of the project, the material cross laminated timber was selected. For the connection system a novel bonding technique was used, which was developed in collaboration with the Institute for Timber Engineering and Wood Technology and holz.bau.forschungs.gmbh at Graz University of Technology. The connection technology allows to link wooden panels under any arbitrary angle without using any sheet metal parts.As a result of the research activities there was built a prototype, consisting of five-, six-and seven-sided cross laminated timber panels on the campus of the University. The self-supporting curved free-form was produced in cooperation with the HTBLV Graz Ortwein, a technical college.Overall, the project activities are seen as research in terms of sustainability, which were made possible on this scale only through the cooperation of various scientific disciplines.