PUBLICATION:Dialectic Form Finding of Structurally Integrated Adaptive Structures

Structural engineering, prompted by advances in mechanics
and computing as well as design principles such as sustainability and
resilience, is evolving towards adaptive structures. Adaptive structures
are structures that use active components to change shape and
properties in response to their environment and/or to their users’
desires. Form-found structures, such as tensegrity and shell structures,
can be designed to accommodate such changes within their structural
behavior. Dialectic form finding is an extension of the traditional
form-finding process integrating performance-related constraints and
criteria in the search of a geometry in static equilibrium. Two
examples of dialectic form-found structurally integrated adaptive
structures are presented. The first example is a shape-shifting
tensegrity-inspired structure, while the second example is a shapeshifting
shell structure. Both systems are designed to explore elastic
deformations for shape changes reducing actuation requirements and
highlighting the potential of the proposed method.