Abstract
The paper describes the parametric design, fabrication and construction of the Stone PolySphere, an installation that investigates the potential of digital fabrication applied to the stone industry. It is a lithic sphere with a diameter of 1.4 m, composed by a massive hemisphere below and a stereotomic hemisphere above. The prototype ideally summarizes, in a single object, the two big trends in stone architecture: the megaliths (below) and the stereotomic assemblies (above). The upper part is a micro-architecture that represents a domed space. The research also shows a new workflow for the realisation of non-reciprocal stereotomic geodesic assemblies, in which are used complex holed voussoirs generated by means of simple morphing operations and recursive subdivisions. The fabrication of the voussoirs consists in milling of several layers of stones glued together. The results are critically discussed, and the implications of the parametric design process are pointed out.
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Notes
- 1.
It is important to specify that the research intent was not to make a scaled-down model of a real dome, but a sphere divided into voussoirs like a real dome. For this reason, structural analysis and material tests were not carried out.
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Acknowledgements
The project was developed under the scientific supervision of Prof. Giuseppe Fallacara and it is part of Barberio’s doctoral dissertation” Nuove Frontiere dell’Architettura in Pietra” (New Frontiers of Stone Architecture). Barberio and Fallacara are co-designers of the Stone PolySphere. The author would like to thank: Yelmini for the stone supplying; Chevrin-Geli for hosting the construction of the sphere; Thibaut SA represented by Jacques Thibaut (Chairman), Alain Calas (Technical Director), Bruno Combernoux (Service Engineer) and Claire Capel (Coordinator). Finally, the author would like to thank Prof. Alberto Pugnale as co-supervisor of his doctoral thesis.
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Barberio, M. (2020). Prototyping Stereotomic Assemblies: Stone Polysphere. In: Viana, V., Murtinho, V., Xavier, J. (eds) Thinking, Drawing, Modelling. Geometrias 2017. Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics, vol 326. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46804-0_1
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