Hyper-Toroidal Deep Surface Prototype

This project investigates computational design strategies for differentiated, cell-based membrane morpholgies that describe a continuous surface with variable cylindrical apertures. The tensioned mesh and anchoring location serve to contort the overall geometry. Variation in the warp and weft force description defines differences in aperture dimensions. Acoustic modulation is considered when varying aperture diameter, depth, and wall thickness.

The studies for this structure where developed in Processing using a simulation engine based on particles and springs. The particle system is constrained to recognize some basic behaviors of tensioned surfaces and meshes. The ultimate calibration to material information occurred through the simultaneous translation of geometry and force descriptions from the Processing model. Specifications for material performance were built into the algorithms so that templates of the un-tensioned surfaces could be generated for fabrication. The cutting patterns were utilized on a large-scale cut plotter to manufacture the panels for the final geometry.

ICD Design Studio (Prof. A. Menges, S. Ahlquist)
Boyan Mihaylov / Viktoriya Nicolova, ICD Stuttgart University, 2011