Megan Prier

Megan Prior

My thesis involves designing a bamboo dome for a school gynamsium placed in southwest Nigeria, where there is both a plenty supply of construction quality bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris) and a significant need for the development of education and locally-based building industry. I will both create two and three-dimensional models of a detailed design and complete a thorough analysis of cost and sustainability. One of the biggest challenges in bamboo construction is the design of joints and supports between members. I will thus choose several joint designs, informed by a literature review, to build at full scale and test in a laboratory setting for strength. Results from these tests will inform the final decision of joints to incorporate into the design. I will also discuss the other impediments to bamboo construction, namely durability and safety considerations with limited building codes.

Publications:

Adriaenssens S., Lowinger R., Hernandez J.,Brown N., Halpern A., Aye Z M, Prier M. (2012). ‘The Shells of the Miami Marine Stadium: Synergy between form, force and energy.’ IASS-IACM 2012: 7th International Conference on Computational Mechanics of Spatial Structures., Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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