Browsing by Author "Schwinn, Tobias"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Open Access
Agent-based principal strips modeling for freeform surfaces in architecture
(2024) Chai, Hua; Orozco, Luis; Kannenberg, Fabian; Siriwardena, Lasath; Schwinn, Tobias; Liu, Hanning; Menges, Achim; Yuan, Philip F.
The principal curvature (PC) of a freeform surface, as an important indicator of its fundamental features, is frequently used to guide their rationalization in the field of architectural geometry. The division of a surface using its PC lines into principal strips (PSs) is an innovative way to break down a freeform surface for construction. However, the application of PC networks in architectural design is hindered by the difficulty to generate them and flexibly control their density. This paper introduces a method for PS-based reconstruction of freeform surfaces with different umbilical conditions in the early stages of design. An agent-based modeling approach is developed to find the umbilics and increase the degree of control over the spacing of PC lines. This research can effectively expand the application range of PS-based surface reconstruction methods for freeform architectures.
Open Access
Integrated design methods for the simulation of fibre-based structures
(2013) Waimer, Frédéric; La Magna, Riccardo; Reichert, Steffen; Schwinn, Tobias; Menges, Achim; Knippers, Jan
The production of structural components based on fibre-reinforced polymers (FRP) for the building industry is still characterised by a classic downstream development process from design through engineering and down to fabrication. In the aerospace and automotive industry, the current technical developments in simulation and manufacturing processes have reached a highly advanced status. Nevertheless, these manufacturing and Analysis processes are in most cases non-transferable or unsuitable for architectural and structural purposes. The goal of the research presented in this paper is to take advantage of the benefits of FRPs within the architectural domain - focusing on material efficiency, durability and light-weight construction - and to find solutions for the problem of transferability into the building scale. For the construction of a Pavilion built on the campus of the University of Stuttgart in 2012, process-specific tools with a high degree of accuracy embedded from the start were developed for the material analysis, optimisation and fabrication steps. In contrast to product prototyping, which forms the basis of industrial mass production, prototype here refers to the establishment of processes within the context of a post-industrial, customised fabrication paradigm.
Open Access
A systematic approach for developing agent-based architectural design models of segmented shells : towards autonomously learned goal-oriented agent behaviors
(Stuttgart : Institute for Computational Design and Construction, University of Stuttgart, 2021) Schwinn, Tobias; Menges, Achim (Prof.)
Segmented shell design constitutes a novel and promising research area in shell design that has emerged over the last 10 years. The prospect of dividing a continuous shell surface into segments is to resolve some of the constraints of continuous shells that have limited their application in building practice. As part of large-span surface structures, segmented shells have shown to possess similar desirable features, while allowing for a high degree of prefabrication. The geometry of individual building elements and global form are, however, complex, which poses a challenge to designing and building segmented shells. One of the challenges of segmented shell design in particular is meeting multiple interrelated, sometimes conflicting, evaluation criteria: geometric validity, structural stability, and producibility. In segmented shell design geometric validity and producibility are aspects that can be considered locally, meaning on the level of the individual building element, while structural stability needs to be evaluated globally and can be conceived of as the global effect of the properties and interactions of all segments in the shell. Agent-based modeling and simulation (ABMS) provides the opportunity to bridge the gap between local characteristics and global performance. By focusing on the detailed description of the individual building elements and their interactions and by conceiving of the global form as the result of a myriad of local interactions of virtual agents representing building elements, the global design problem can be solved in parallel on the level of the individual building elements. The work thus proposes a methodology for developing agent-based models of buildings where agents constitute building elements. The research pursues and synthesizes two investigative strands: on the one hand, generalizing findings from previously built plate shells as part of a case study-based, inductive research approach, which is geared towards building a catalog of validated design principles for plate shells; on the other hand, systematizing the agent-based modeling approach for architectural design-oriented applications in general, and plate shell design in particular.