#christopher voltl

[architecturalthesis]

Spatial additive manufacturing [2023]

[architecturalthesis]

Common Gallery - Robotic Brick Construction

When challenging an industry that is already efficient and cost effective should we even bother trying to change it?

Yes, always yes. Innovation is derived from challenging the status quo, in the research conducted at University of Michigan Taubman College under the direction of Professor Arash Adel we are proposing a different approach to brick construction for standard and doubly-curved wall assemblies. Looking at research that has been developed in this area from institution such as ETH Zurich, we hope to build upon and create alternative ways of constructing and analyzing brick wall assemblies

Precedence

Standard construction

- Speed: 100 bricks per hour & limited to weekly working hours

- Precision: High precision in simple wall assemblies.

Low precision when assembling complex Geometry, “Critical Mass”

- Structural: Use of mortar limits structural resistance to compression forces only.

Bond types explored

(from left to right)

Stretcher, Flemish, Quetta

Workflow Diagram

Up to this point the whole design process has been digital, a lot of thought has been developed to make sure nothing goes wrong when it comes to assembly. For the most part this was true, but we ran through a few errors, but it’s all about the process, right? If you’re not making mistakes along the way either you’re not learning or you’re not from this world, Yen, I’m talking about you.

Design process

The design was incepted from a curved extrusion to provide stability from users in the gallery touching and interacting with the space. The double curvature was introduced due to the precision of the fabrication method and load analysis tools giving the ability to predict how the structure will react to the geometry giving us the possibility to deviate from standard brick construction.

Load Assembly (left)

Generating lattice structure based on the proximity of the brick center points

Identify Interfaces (center)

Generating overlapping surfaces between brick layers, and identify forces.

● Blue: Compression force; ability to stand without additional support

● Red: Tension force; adhesive required for structural stability

Compute Interface Force Vectors (right)

Compute and generating force vectors

● Blue : Direction of the compression forces

● Red: Direction of the tension forces

● Resultant tension force range between 0 - 120 Newton

Logistics

It’s all fun and games when we develop the wall in a closed environment but how do we get the full scale structure to site? A question not without it’s challenges, but we are proposing segmenting the wall into transportable units that can be assembled in the gallery such as the project form ROB Technologies & Gramazio Kohler Research. Showing that they had successful results, this method can be reproduced to yield similar results.

Our main challenge is transporting from the Taubman College FabLab to the site, which we are proposing transporting but a flatbed truck and use of forklifts to move the units on and off the vehicle.

Credits

Design team

Carl Eppinger

Monik Gada

Christopher Voltl

Professor

Arash Adel

Additional Support

University of Michigan

Taubman College FabLab

[architecturalthesis]

20 lines

Creation of an object of geometric transformations from a set of 20 lines. The complexities arose from the bridging developed between the 20 starting lines to encapsulate the center object but never intersect.

A sense of hierarchy was developed by the three sets of originating lines set at different radii directly corresponding to the length from the surface of the center object.

Next step in the process is to receive the shipment of the hanging socket and light to make sure the modeled object has enough clearance for the object to fit and so I can model the fitting where the socket will attach.

[architecturalthesis]

Diagram 01

[parametricarch]

Grasshopper + Karamba tutorial

[architecturalthesis]

STRUCTURAL LOAD DIAGRAMS

single module

Load: 200 psf

Geometry: 10in modules 

Diagrams:

-where geometry is is deforming most

-showing deformation for exaggerated load

-probability of holding load (blue color is desired)

-load stress points (red requires reinforcement)

[architecturalthesis]

Concept Study Through Animation

Recreation of the Sea Urchin skin by creating a point density with connection nodes and applying an architectural language to that to create spatial qualities. 

[architecturalthesis]

Script is working within complex perimeters