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Form Finding Lab.
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Keynote: Frei Otto 100, ILEK, Stuttgart, Germany

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At the 100th anniversary celebration of Frei Otto at ILEK in Stuttgart, I had the honor of giving a keynote lecture titled “Formed by Forces, Framed for Humans.” I didn’t expect to receive three unforgettable gifts.

The first was the profound experience of being part of Frei Otto’s community and legacy—gathering with people from around the world inspired by his visionary work.

The second was a mesmerizing performance, “Unfolding Umbrellas.” at StadtPalais Museum für Stuttgart. This live piece celebrated Frei Otto’s explorations of movement, structure, and form. The careful opening of 1976 Pink Floyd stage umbrellas, set to group’s music played by Stuttgart musicians, was a powerful tribute to Frei Otto’s bridge between architecture and pop culture. It deeply resonated with my own work on performance and nets.

The third gift was free online access to all the IL publications—many of which I’ve collected in hard copy over the years. A generous and meaningful gesture from a place that continues to advance Frei Otto’s spirit of innovation and generosity

More insights

Publication: Digital guidework for augmented thin-tile vaulting construction

Masonry vaults are among the most elegant and efficient structural forms, yet their construction has long been slowed down by costly falsework and guidework.
Our team explored a new path: augmented reality as digital guidework. Instead of rigid scaffolding, masons can now follow holographic projections that provide just the right amount of visual support—keeping builders in control of their analog craft.
In field tests, this approach improved productivity by ~30% while achieving remarkable accuracy (within 1% of the vault span). Looking ahead, interactive mixed-reality could further boost precision, speed, and even training opportunities.
This work shows how centuries-old craftsmanship and cutting-edge technology can merge to keep masonry vaulting not just viable, but visionary. Read more about our findings here https://lnkd.in/d4-KcCxS

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Publication: Design of purely compressive shells under vertical and horizontal loads through Machine Learning-driven form-finding

We are excited to share our latest research on advancing the design of shell structures under challenging loading conditions. Traditionally, form-finding methods for masonry vaults focus on vertical loads, but extreme wind or seismic forces introduce significant design and safety complexities.
Our new paper explores an alternative to computationally intensive optimisation steps in Membrane Equilibrium Analysis. Using machine learning regression techniques—XGBoost, Random Forests, and k-Nearest Neighbours—we identify optimal Airy Stress Function parameters to improve efficiency and maintain structural integrity.
Case study results show that these methods can reduce computational demands while achieving material-efficient designs, with k-Nearest Neighbours delivering the best performance in our tests.
Read more about our findings here: https://lnkd.in/eEnu8sEW

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Exhibit: Alternative Skies at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Italy

We’re pleased to share that our latest paper, “Numerical modeling of cantilevered bigon arm mechanics under gravity,” by Axel Larsson @axla.io and Sigrid Adriaenssens is now published Open Access in the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids (link in bio)

In this work, we investigate the stability regimes of reconfigurable bigon arms under gravitational loading—offering new insights into multi-stable structural systems.

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