Design For Self-Supporting Assemblies

This research proposes an idea using minimal amount of formwork during the assembling process when designing and building freeform shell structures out of masonry. The aim is to investigate an approach to generate a discreteelement assembly through computational methods. Therefore, to determine suitable tessellation and block shapes, a real time physics simulation will be assigned to determine whether or not the units remain static during the assembling process. Since these parameters are highly complex and influenced by each other, and effective solution can be found through adaptive and genetic algorithm. As guidance, a digital  pipeline shall be created to assist in the process from design all the way to construction of the freeform masonry shell structure.

Contact: Gene Ting-Chun Kao

Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design – Prof. Dr.‐Ing. Jan Knippers
Institute of Computational Design and Construction – Prof. Achim Menges

Supervisors
Axel Körner, Long Nguyen, Daniel Sonntag