Form Finding Lab – Princeton University

Welcome

By 2050, 70% of the world population will live in cities. Today already 50% live in an urban environment and produce more than 75% of all C0₂ emissions. Finding intelligent and efficient ways to provide for more people with fewer resources will make cities more resilient to manmade and natural disasters and reduce their impact on the environment. Our long-term research goal is to transform the engineering design framework for a future-oriented built urban environment. Our research program addresses the following two core questions: What is the relationship between form and efficiency in civil structures?; and With increasing pressure on the preservation of natural resources, how can design theories and tools match untested sculptural ideas to material-efficient, constructible structures?

Please feel free to get in touch if you are interested in pursuing collaboration.

Prof. S. Adriaenssens
Associate Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Princeton University

JOURNAL PUBLICATION: A new finite element level set reinitialization method based on the shifted boundary method

T. Xue, W. Ching Sun, S. Adriaenssens, Y. Weic, C. Liuc, 'An interface-preserving level set reinitialization method based on the shifted boundary method', Journal of Computational Physics, Publication Date: APRIL 16 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmps.2021.104459

JOURNAL PUBLICATION: Numerical modeling of static equilibria and bifurcations in bigons and bigon rings

Lace patterns in a 19th century book by the German architect Gottfried Semper, led to the discovery of a novel multi-stable, reconfigurable structures, suitable for soft robotics and wearable technology and a new computational approach to understand their mechanical behavior. doi.org/10.1016/j.jmps.2021.104459

OPINION: WHY CIVIL ENGINEERINGS STUDENTS SHOULD MAKE THINGS

In this month's American Society of Civil Engineer's Member Voices article, Joe Scanlan (Prof. Visual Arts at Princeton University) and I discuss the value of haptic learning for civil engineering students; why learning and working with their hands makes them better civil engineers.

REVIEW: Large-scale origami locks into place under pressure

S. Adriaenssens, ‘Large-scale origami locks into place under pressure’, Nature 592, 510 – 511 (2021). Publication Date: APRIL 21 2021, DOI: 10.1038/d41586-021-00971-7

PANEL: MATERIALS, BRIDGING ARTS AND ENGINEERING

I am excited to moderate a panel on "Bridging Arts and Engineering" in the Materials for Today and Tomorrow: A Princeton University Materials Science Symposium on Wednesday April 21st 2021. In this panel we explore this relationship and also wonder how our human sensuality and culture influence which new materials are successful..

PRESENTATION: Structural Forms in Architecture

I am delighted to speak in the Hearst Lecture Series at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo on April 7th 2021. In my lecture, I will focus on the design, optimization and realisation of structural forms for long-span shells, large-scale raised and submerged flexible net barriers, and adaptive building facades. Some of these systems are inspired by systems that have evolved in biology, art or craft.

PRESENTATION: TENSION-ONLY STRUCTURES – FEELING A LITTLE STRETCHED

I am delighted to present our research on tension-only structures to architecture and engineering students in Prof. Ochsendorf's Structures course at MIT. Our advances on the mechanics of suspended rope bridges, inflateable sea barriers and hanging networks will be discussed.

International Day of Women and Girls in Science

According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, women make up less than 30% of the world's researchers. Today, Thursday 11th February 2021, is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. A big shout out to all the women and girls changing the world through science!

HONOR: ASCE SEI FELLOW

It is with great joy that I can inform you that I have been named Fellow of the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) of ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineering). The SEI Fellow grade distinguishes members of ASCE as leaders and mentors in the profession.

EXHIBITION: Lace -HARNESSING LARGE DEFORMATIONS IN INTERLACED ELASTIC NETWORKS

How can art inspire engineering systems? We have been working with bobbin lace and textile artists to find out. Our work is exhibited at the 2021 Joint Mathematics Meetings, January 6-9 2021.

PRESENTATION: DigitalFUTURES- Shell Structures

To start off the year in a good spirit, I cordially invite you to Virtual Panel and Lecture on Shell Structures on January 16th 2021 (9AM EST, 3PM CET, 10PM China) hosted by Philip Yuan on the DigitalFUTURES platform. Besides myself, Philippe Block (ETHZ) and Chris Williams (University of Bath) will be offering thoughts and design approaches to shells.

And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been.

And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been. - Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) Our best wishes to you from us at the Form Finding Lab.

JOURNAL PUBLICATION: Human–robot collaboration: a fabrication framework for the sequential design and construction of unplanned spatial structures

Our first work on robots and unplanned spatial structures is out! E.P.G. Bruun, I. Ting, S. Adriaenssens, S. Parascho ‘Human-robot collaboration: A fabrication framework for the sequential design and construction of unplanned spatial structures’, Digital Creativity doi.org/10.1080/14626268.2020.1845214 .

JOURNAL PUBLICATION: Robotic vault: a cooperative robotic assembly method for brick vault construction

Our paper on how the robots build the brick vault without scaffolding is out today Parascho, S., Han, I.X., Walker, S., Beghini, A., Bruun, E.P.G., Adriaenssens, S., Robotic vault: a cooperative robotic assembly method for brick vault construction. Construction Robotics (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41693-020-00041-w

POST DOC RESEARCH POSITION: ORIGAMI MECHANICS

The Form Finding Lab in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at Princeton University invites applications for post-doctoral and more senior research position to support research on the mechanics of curved crease origami.

GUEST SPEAKER: Rethinking Concrete, rethinking material conventions in the Anthropocene

Excited to be part of this interdisciplinary conference organized by Forrest Meggers and Lucia Allais, will discuss new approaches to the lifespan, material dynamics, cultural history, and design potential of reinforced concrete. https://soa.princeton.edu/content/rethinking-concrete%3A-material-conventions-anthropocene