ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2018 / ICD University of Stuttgart

ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2018 / ICD University of Stuttgart - Image 2 of 36ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2018 / ICD University of Stuttgart - Image 3 of 36ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2018 / ICD University of Stuttgart - Image 4 of 36ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2018 / ICD University of Stuttgart - Image 5 of 36ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2018 / ICD University of Stuttgart - More Images+ 31

Stuttgart, Germany, Germany
  • Cable Robotics: Ondrej Kyjanek, Martin Loucka
  • Manufacturing: Wilhelm Weber GmbH & Co. KG
  • Funding: GETTYLAB, ITASCA Consulting Inc.
  • Size: circa 105 cubic metres (Height: 3.00 metres, Width: 5.00 metres, Length: 7.00 metres)
  • Weight: circa 2500 kilograms
  • Number Of Particles: circa 120 000 non-convex particles (circa 70 000 hexapods and circa 50 000 dekapods) and circa 725 convex particles (spheres)
  • Icd Institute For Computational Design And Construction: Karola Dierichs, Achim Menges
  • Research Team: Christian Arias, Bahar Al Bahar, Elaine Bonavia, Federico Forestiero, Pedro Giachini, Shir Katz, Alexandre Mballa-Ekobena, Leyla Yunis, Jacob Zindroski
  • City: Stuttgart, Germany
  • Country: Germany
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ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2018 / ICD University of Stuttgart - Image 17 of 36
© Roland Halbe
ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2018 / ICD University of Stuttgart - Image 20 of 36
© Roland Halbe

Text description provided by the architects. In inanimate nature, large masses of granular substances, such as sand or gravel, are in constant processes of formation through perpetual cycles of erosion and accretion. What if architecture was to emulate this behaviour and allow for its own continuous reconfiguration?

ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2018 / ICD University of Stuttgart - Forest
© Roland Halbe

The ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2018 presents the latest results of 10 years of research into designed granular materials for architecture. It constitutes the first fully enclosed architectural space entirely constructed from designed granules, which lie only in loose frictional contact. Such unbound granular materials show the unique property to obtain both the stable character of a solid material and the rapid reconfigurability of a fluid. If custom-designed particles are deployed, granular materials can form self-supporting spatial enclosures while remaining fully reconfigurable and reusable. 70.000 star-like, white particles are made from recycled plastics. They are poured by a rapidly deployable, large scale robot system. The pavilion demonstrates how designed granular materials open up a new perspective for a design paradigm of productive forms of de- and re-stabilization and, thus, an architecture that can be rapidly deployed and reconfigured, as well as eventually removed and reused.

ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2018 / ICD University of Stuttgart - Image 2 of 36
© ICD University Stuttgart

DESIGNED GRANULAR MATERIALS
The ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2018 explores the construction of spatial enclosures made from designed granular materials. Granular materials are material systems which consist of large numbers of granules or particles. These particles are not bound to each other: they interact only through contact forces. In nature examples are sand, gravel or snow. In a designed granular material the particles are artificially made and consequently their geometry and material can be defined by the designer. Designing the particle allows the calibration of the characteristics of the overall granular material.

ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2018 / ICD University of Stuttgart - Image 4 of 36
© ICD University Stuttgart
ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2018 / ICD University of Stuttgart - Image 3 of 36
© Roland Halbe

DESIGN MODEL
The ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2018 uses two types of designed particles with different behaviours: convex spheres, which can flow, and highly non-convex hexapods and dekapods, which can interlock. The convex spheres are a removable formwork, the highly non-convex hexapods and dekapods remain as a self-supporting spatial structure. Both types can be re-used in a new formation as the particles are not bound to each other. Thus, particles deployed in preceding projects have been entirely re-used for the ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2018. The highly non-convex hexapods are industrially custom-made in an injection-moulding process using recycled plastics. The convex spheres are ready-made inflatables. Using a very large number of them they turn into a bulk material. Being inflatables, they have the added benefit of a low packing volume and a high deployable volume. Like the highly non-convex hexapods and dekapods, they are entirely reusable for the next project iterations.

© ICD University Stuttgart
Diagram © ICD University Stuttgart

CONSTRUCTION PROCESS
Full-scale structures made from designed granular materials need to be constructed jn situ. In this case the industrial storage space of the granular materials has been converted into a production hall. A cable-driven parallel robot, custom-made to be flexibly installed, was fixed on four points to the walls of the hall and its supporting beam structure. The total working space measures approximately 9 by 10 metres.

© ICD University Stuttgart
© ICD University Stuttgart

The storage boxes of the granular material are used as an effector on the cable-driven parallel robot, which drives them to a precisely defined deposition point and unloads them. Consequently, the empty boxes are deposited as a boundary container on the edges of the structure. In this manner also the storage-, production- and container-system are never redundant but fully reusable.

ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2018 / ICD University of Stuttgart - Image 28 of 36
© ICD University Stuttgart

The cable-driven parallel robot was controlled through a custom-written interface using a parametric modelling environment. The design and construction process involved an image-segregation algorithm, which allows to check the geometric accuracy of the structure using image segregation. The design of two interconnected vaults explores the potential of spatial enclosures, formed entirely of designed granular materials at an architectural scale.

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Cite: "ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2018 / ICD University of Stuttgart" 27 Sep 2018. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/902775/icd-aggregate-pavilion-2018-icd-university-of-stuttgart> ISSN 0719-8884

© ICD University Stuttgart

ICD 2018 颗粒材料展亭 / 德国斯图加特大学计算机设计学院

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