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MIT 6 837 - Architectural Design Tool

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1CatenaryCAD: An Architectural Design ToolFinal Project ReportTeam SixteenDan ChakMegan GalbraithAxel Kilian6.837 Computer GraphicsProfessors: Seth Teller and Fredo DurandTA’s: Addy Ngan and Jingyi Yu2Table of Contents1. Abstract2. Introduction3. Goals4. Individual Contributions5. Achievements6. Lessons Learned7. Deliverables8. Acknowledgements9. BibliographyAbstractThe architect Antonio Gaudi designed complex structures based on cat-enary systems. His beautiful forms were created by suspending pieces of string from hooks, deforming them with weights and other strings, then inverting the form to create the structural elements. Today’s architects are at a loss to reproduce these types of catenary forms when using even the most advanced design tools on the market. For our final project, we aim to provide a computationally enhanced version of Gaudi’s atelier. We are creating the design software for architects inter-ested in building models using catenary systems. The tool is implemented in C++ and Tcl/Tk, and intented to be used for both construction and analysis of catenary forms.3IntroductionAntonio Gaudi developed a design technique which allows architects to design complex structures based on catenary systems. The curves in catenary systems are formed by perfectly flexible, uniformly dense strings suspended from their endpoints and weighted under gravity. Gaudi cre-ated many amazing structures using pieces of string - structures that architects would be at a loss to try and reproduce today using even most advanced design tools on the market. For this final project, we aim to provide a computationally enhanced version of Gaudi’s atelier. Rather than simply allowing an architect to arrange geometric primitives, as they can in AutoCad and other design tools, we instead wanted to provide an environment in which strings responding to gravity and can be arranged to form structures that are far more organic and beautiful.Catenary systems have been used for construction in Catalan areas of Spain for a long time. For example, if a Catalan stair is to be constructed, the form is not detailed by the planners or architects. Instead, the masons on site hang a rope between the point of departure and the point to be reached, trace the shape, and flip the curve over to use as the guide for constructing the masonry arch that carries the stairs. The rope is in pure tension, as it can not take any compression due to its flexibility. Therefore the form it finds contains the pure tensile force within the envelope of the string. Inverting the parabola results in the pure compression arch necessary for brick construction, which cannot take any tensile forces.Antonio Gaudi developed the system of translating catenary string statics into a spatial design system. He constructed scaled models of his design ideas by developing forms through a weighted string form-finding method. In his case, the models are spatial and are much more complex then the catenary stair-case example. Gaudi achieved the desired forms Steel bridge When inverted, the arches can be identified as catenary shapes (approximately) with the vertical members in pure compression. This bridge is not a design by Gaudi, it illustrates principle of catenary systems.4through the control of three variables - anchor points of the strings, the length of the strings, and the weights attached to them. By designing forms this way, Gaudi knew that the resulting geometry would act purely in compression when inverted. He also had a fairly precise estimate of the loads necessary on the different members of his construction. Therefore, Gaudi could construct buildings that would not collapse or require extra support structures.Beyond structural form finding, Gaudi also used the catenary method for rendering the interior and exterior shapes of buildings. He imagined interiors by painting and tracing over the “wire frame” models of lines, which were simply photos of his string forms.For this project, we have chosen to create a design tool for architects that differs in its approach to form-finding from current tools likes AutoCad, Rhino, SoftImage, or Maya. CAD packages take the task of drafting and add in the power of computation in order to make more complex and interesting buildings possible. Software tools allow designers to experi-ment with other shapes, merging computational power with form finding methods that result in more interesting architecture and new styles. Maya and other programs are modelling tools rather than generative tools.Tools are an essential part of production in any field. Even tool-building itself relies on other tools, with the most basic of all tools being the human hands. People who have the ability to create their own tools are limited only by their imaginations in what they can do. Meanwhile, those that are not tool-builders are limited in what they can accomplish not merely by their imaginations, but also by the tools they have available to use. In computer graphics, it seems that many of the tools built are meant to service other computer graphics tasks. With the exception of the movie industry, research in computer graphics rarely impacts fields other than the computer graphics field itself. For example, faster rendering techniques and other advances in computer graphics are interesting, but researchers should address how these tech-niques can be used in new contexts and out-side the exclusively visual domain. There are many fields that could benefit from tools that use the state-of-the-art in computer graphics. Gaudi’s rendering techniqueGaudi used photographs of the string models literally as wire-frame models, filling in the sur-faces with paint to create an impression of the spaces that would be created.5We hope the creation of our catenary design tool will help contemporary architects realize the beautiful, Gaudi-inspired shapes and means through computational methods rather than physically sitting at their desks tying strings together. Computer-aided catenary designs will be quicker and provide room for playing, trial and error, and potentially provide a means to create more complex designs than imagined in the physical world. In addition, we hope our tool will help expand the reach of computer graphics to outside fields. If successful, perhaps others will begin applying complex computer graphics to new fields as well.GoalsGenerally, we wanted to create a useful and intuitive program for archi-tects to


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MIT 6 837 - Architectural Design Tool

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