News
Ehsan Baharlou will present his research titled “Material Tectonics” on Saturday, October 21 at the 2023 ACSA/AIA Intersections Research Conference: Material Economies. Dr. Baharlou’s research focuses on integrating material capacities and fabrication limitations into design processes. He will delve into material tectonics, focusing on approaches to develop eco-resilient structures using robotic additive manufacturing. The project highlights the difficulties and potentials of 3D printing eco-resilient materials in order to reduce the embodied energy of the building industry. He will present during the session on material technologies.
For more information on the ACSA/AIA conference, please go here.
Selected Project
Robotic Serpentine Wall
Description
The project “Robotic Serpentine Wall” investigates new, unexpected uses of wood to construct an inhabitable structure. It created a structure that 1) celebrates steam bending’s ability to radically change wood’s structural potential; 2) is inhabitable, improves the site on which it was built, and is connected with the history of its larger context; and 3) was data- and mathematically driven.
Program Development
© L. Kirssin, B. Penny, T. Rhodes, (Photographer: Kwadwo Tenkorang), 2020.
© L. Kirssin, B. Penny, T. Rhodes, 2020.
© L. Kirssin, B. Penny, T. Rhodes, 2020.
© L. Kirssin, B. Penny, T. Rhodes, 2020.
© L. Kirssin, B. Penny, T. Rhodes, (Photographer: Kwadwo Tenkorang), 2020.
© L. Kirssin, B. Penny, T. Rhodes, (Photographer: Kwadwo Tenkorang), 2020.
© L. Kirssin, B. Penny, T. Rhodes, (Photographer: Kwadwo Tenkorang), 2020.
© L. Kirssin, B. Penny, T. Rhodes, 2020.
© L. Kirssin, B. Penny, T. Rhodes, 2020.
© L. Kirssin, B. Penny, T. Rhodes, (Photographer: Kwadwo Tenkorang), 2020.
© L. Kirssin, B. Penny, T. Rhodes, (Photographer: Kwadwo Tenkorang), 2020.
This project responded to its site—the North Terrace of UVA’s School of Architecture—in two ways. First, it negotiated the step between the ground and the top of the planter box, a distance of 26 ½”, in a way that encourages small group interactions. Second, the form responds to the complex history of serpentine walls at UVA. This sinusoidal shape was manipulated to create a structure that produced a small gathering area on one side and a seat on the other. It was then reverse-engineered to minimize the number of unique components upon construction.
Several experiments were conducted to test the amount that pieces of birch plywood and oak plywood reverted to their original shape following steaming and either bending or twisting; birch plywood performed better in both. A third experiment determined plywood pieces needed to be a minimum length of 24” to prevent cracking as a result of twisting.
Prototyping the structure led to the discovery that the primary pieces work in tension, not compression. This in turn resulted in the inclusion of additional support pieces for greater structural stability.
The final design was constructed through a complex process of cutting, twisting and bending, and slotting the pieces together. Each piece was machine cut according to the specific measurements dictated by the digital design. They were then steamed before being twisted and bent into position, allowed to dry, and put together. The final assembly process revealed that the connections between wall sections were necessary for the structure to be free-standing.
This project was awarded the 2021 Bruce Abbey Technology Award. It was featured on the University of Virginia School of Architecture’s website.
Author and Image Credit
Leah Kirssin, Bay Penny, Trenton Rhodes.
Instructor
Ehsan Baharlou
Selected Project
SMASK: A Smart Mask for Amid/Post-COVID
Description
Due to the critical situation of COVID-19, a smart mask—called SMASK—was designed that lowers a face shield over the wearer’s face whenever someone is detected within six feet.
Program Development
M. Huang, X. Liu, University of Virginia, 2020.
M. Huang, X. Liu, University of Virginia, 2020.
M. Huang, X. Liu, University of Virginia, 2020.
M. Huang, X. Liu, University of Virginia, 2020.
M. Huang, X. Liu, University of Virginia, 2020.
Integral to the project was the premise of crowd sourcing, which involved designing and making open source both the online user interface and the wearable device. The mask can be customized and assembled by anyone, and used both in COVID and post-COVID times.
Consumers can select specific use cases based on their needs. Depending on their data privacy needs, they can select their preferences in sharing data. Users can also measure their head to produce a better fitting head ring. The information provided by the customer will allow for personalized feedback and help selecting which face shield to use.
The mask autonomously functions at the individual, surrounding, and regional levels. Through informal data collection and processing, it studies emerging social patterns and its (and users’) interactions with the built environment under certain spatial restrictions. In this way, citizens themselves become sensors of the city and are able to report and potentially solve emerging problems.
Author and Image Credit
Meng Huang and Xun Liu.
Instructor
Ehsan Baharlou
Selected Project
Pattern-dominant Bending Tectonics
Description
“Pattern-dominant Bending Tectonics” investigates the physical and mechanical properties of wood in combination with computational simulation to explore multiscale spatial forms in a freeform, self-standing installation. The connection between physical experimentation and computational design was key in this project.
Program Development
The design and assembly of 1/8’’ birch plywood segments were inspired by two-dimensional patterns. Bristol board, which has similar physical properties to plywood, was used as an experimental prototype to test a variety of cutting patterns. The resulting geometry deformations were used in the research and fabrication of the designed wood module.
The computational design tool developed in this project enabled the inclusion of material characteristics and fabrication parameters in the design process. Rather than analyzing the wood prototype manually, the geometries of each individual module were incorporated into a simulation and optimization process for computational control. One key focus was the digital chain from the overall design to the structural analysis and fabrication. Wood modules on two freeform facades and their connecting structures were formed using Kangaroo and Circle Packing in Grasshopper. These generated 182 geometrically distinct birch plywood plates for this self-standing installation.
The development, design, and fabrication of Pattern-dominant Bending Tectonics demonstrated the connection between physical experiments and computational design and simulation. When generating three-dimensional forms from two dimensions, optimized patterns cut into the wood help bend and buckle the thin wooden plates. They also help harness connections between multiple layers in both the constructional and computational processes, which in turn enable the exploration of multiscale spatial forms in the final global design.
Author and Image Credit
Tianqi Chu, Jingyao Zhang, Xinyi Xia.
Instructor
Ehsan Baharlou
