This woven carbon fiber pavilion looks like design of a crafty spider. But it’s actually modeled after an entirely different bug. The research team at the University of Stuttgart’s Institute for Computational Design (the same team that made this peanut-shaped building), designed its 2014 research pavilion based on the flying beetle. Or more specifically the beetle’s elytron, that hard, protective forewing that shields the wings the insect uses for flying.
Every year, the ICD along with the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design constructs a research pavilion, and every year, the structure looks super weird. It’s a time that the computational designers can crack their knuckles and really dig into some big, challenging architectural questions that often get brushed aside for more practical concerns. This year, the big question was: How can you build architectural structures with composite materials like glass and carbon fiber without using massive molds to dictate the shape? This is a difficult thing to do, and the answer could usher in a radically new way of constructing buildings.
Typically when you use these composite materials, you first need to lay them into a formwork to structure their shape. This is how Formula One cars and racing sails are made, for example. But using a mold for an architectural project makes little sense, says Achim Menges, head of the ICD.
“A mold is actually a really complicated thing to build; it’s the biggest investment.” While sails and cars are mass produced in the same shape, a robust structure requires multiple different components that will likely only be used once. It made more sense to eliminate them altogether. “Rather than build a mold for every individual component, we just built the component,” he says.
That’s where the beetle comes in. The beetle’s double-layered elytron is made of a stiff, strong fibrous material. The ICD teams mimicked the structure of the elytron by connecting two woven layers of fibers without the use of a core. “You can lay the fibers in exactly the direction and density that is required to satisfy the structural requirements,” says Menges. “That’s exactly what we see in nature.”
Using a six-axis robot, the team was able to weave individual fibers on top of each other, forming a connection from the top layer to the bottom layer. This results in a mesmerizing web-like pattern that’s remarkably robust.
“Rather than build a mold for every individual component, we just built the component,” he says.
The ideas behind the pavilion are complex , which is evident when you look at intricacies of the 36 woven modules. It’s no surprise then that this method is still a while away from actually being implemented in non-folly structures. But the end goal, of course, is to take these design and fabrication methods out of the research phase and bring them into the real world as viable construction options. Past research pavilions have translated into permanent structures (the Landesgartenschau Exhibition Hall is an example).
Menges believes that someday in the not too distant future, lightweight materials like carbon fiber will be much more common in long-span architecture structures like stadium roofs. Stadiums are great, but when can we get this in our backyards?