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Transformable building structures in architectural engineering education

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Abstract

In the last decade, various types of transformable building structures have been developed, such as deployable tensegrity, scissor-like and origami-inspired systems, as well as reconfigurable rigid-bar linkage and adaptive compliant structures. The development of the systems owns to advances in material design and kinetics, while aiming at an improved sustainability of the built environment. Their conceptualization and investigation have been enabled through associative parametric design and numerical analysis facilities that meanwhile provide robust digital visualizations and numerical analysis models. In principle, responsive building structures are capable to adapt to changing functional, loading, or environmental conditions. At university level, the integrated architectural design that involves an integrative development of the building form, functions and technical system parameters is increasingly enriched by performance-based design approaches through interdisciplinary experimentation and design-driven research, i.e., ‘integrated interdisciplinary design’, for the achievement of efficiency, sustainability and technological innovation in architecture. The paper discusses related influencing modes and preliminary design results of an integrated interdisciplinary approach driven by aspects of modularity, flexibility, transportability, deployability, adaptivity and interactivity, as well as their implications towards a framework of related research. The design projects presented have been supervised by the authors in recent years at the University of Cyprus and the University of Stuttgart. In all cases, the design methodology followed enables students to consider related morphological, functional and structural requirements, while being exposed to transformable building structures as related to aspects of materiality, functionality, sustainability and aesthetics.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Savvas Anastasiou, Sophia Theologou and Maria Christofi, Matthias Kip and Laura Oestringer, Man Hoan Dao, Behnaz Negokool and Jiaxin Lu, Stefanos Kyprianou, as well as Leo Ritter and Luis Frisch for the fruitful collaboration and their involvement to take on the completion of the works presented beyond their comfort zone.

Funding

Partial financial support was received from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – Project-ID 279064222 – SFB 1244.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, University of Cyprus, Kallipoleos St. 75, 1678, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Marios C. Phocas

  2. Institute for Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 7+14, 70569, Stuttgart, F.R., Germany

    Maria Matheou & Walter Haase

Authors
  1. Marios C. Phocas
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  2. Maria Matheou
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  3. Walter Haase
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Correspondence to Marios C. Phocas.

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Phocas, M.C., Matheou, M. & Haase, W. Transformable building structures in architectural engineering education. Archit. Struct. Constr. 2, 183–198 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44150-022-00022-3

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