One tool, one material, one operation. 

 

Woven Tectonics aims to use minimal material, minimal tools, and minimal labor to produce effective, efficient, and exuberant structure and space. Woven Tectonics is shown here in two iterations, first as a competition entry for the 2015 Pier 9 competition, which was awarded second prize. While the competition required a pavilion on San Francisco’s Embarcadero, and a pavilion is what we provided, designed into the system was a second configuration, one which enabled the pavilion to have a second life after the pavilion’s demount.

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Concept

While advanced digital modeling tools allow for novel formal exploration, feasibility has been constrained by the complexity and cost of custom fabrication systems. Woven Tectonics produces bio-inspired forms with efficient material use and simplified fabrication systems. Through looking at natural structural systems (such as microscopic bone structure), we find examples in nature of minimal material producing maximal strength
through its internal geometry. Woven Tectonics applies these logic at human scale: using extremely simple and repeatable elements to create large and complex woven volumes.

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Woven Tectonics

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The Pier Nine installation of Woven Tectonics draws upon the nearby bell tower typology as a
social beacon and gathering place. Sited at the edge of the San Francisco Bay, the design finds
geometric inspiration from the barnacles clustered on the pier and from the fluidity of the sea. At the base, the hyper fluid form creates a stepped seating for visitors.

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In the example proposed ?which represents only one of a number of scenarios possible
through this form-finding and minimal material system ?the woven structure uses 200 modules and forms a woven tower.

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Design and Computation

Woven Tectonics combines advanced digital simulation and modeling techniques with low-tech fabrication and construction techniques, as well as minimal material usage. Through the implementation of simple rule sets, vast complexity within the system is generated. Initial modeling relies upon sub-D modeling programs to generate all quod-based systems with even numbered-based star points. Custom algorithms are then used to generate linear connectivity through otherwise undefined linear networks.

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Fabrication Strategy

Digital modeling, simulation and rationalization of complex geometries have created new opportunities for designers. Similar technologies in fabrication are providing those designers with the ability to realize those design as a discrete
object. This project seeks to examine complex algorithms to produce complex forms while maintaining an economy of materials, and efficiency of structure and weight. Complex geometry can be rationalized through the application of analytic recursive algorithms to generate simple component parts.

The woven strips gain strength through counter torsional forces, based on and advancing recent work involving active bending structures, these prototypes exhibit the vast strength gained through programmed flexure. By puncturing the simple strip with precisely computed holes, the material is able to gain strengths previously unseen at such minimal implementations.

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