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Design Computed

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Sagrada Família: how did Gaudí remove the flying buttresses? 👇

Gaudí designed with physical models instead of calculations: strings hung from a board with small bags of lead shot, photographed and turned upside down. His studio's models were largely destroyed in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War, and the team still rebuilds his geometry from fragments and photographs today.

Try it on your desk: hang a chain between two points, then sketch its curve upside down. That's your arch.

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Photos: Ad Meskens, Txllxt TxllxT, Javiermes, Canaan, Eutouring, Mariordo (CC BY-SA 4.0), Avda, patano, José Luiz (CC BY-SA 3.0), Jorge Láscar, Wolfgang Staudt (CC BY 2.0), Karen Jardine, PierreSelim (CC BY 3.0), Joseolgon (CC BY-SA 4.0), Eric Fischer (CC BY 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons · AI voice

#sagradafamilia #gaudi #formfinding #organicarchitecture #architecturestudent by @design_computed

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11 hours ago

Sydney Opera House: how did Jørn Utzon make the impossible shells buildable? 👇

Utzon was 38 when his entry won the 1957 competition, reportedly pulled from the rejected pile by juror Eero Saarinen. The engineers at Ove Arup spent years testing shapes before the spherical solution let every rib be cast from standard moulds. The final cost reached about 03 million, against early estimates of a few million.

Next time a form resists you, look for the one shape every part could be cut from.

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Photos: Dietmar Rabich (CC BY-SA 4.0), Len Stone photograph collection (CC BY 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons · AI voice

#sydneyoperahouse #jornutzon #shellstructure #architecturehistory #architecturestudent by @design_computed

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a day ago

Mycelium bricks: what if a building material could be grown instead of mined? 👇

Hy-Fi was designed by David Benjamin's studio The Living for MoMA PS1's Young Architects Program in 2014. Ecovative grew the bricks in moulds of three sizes, with Arup as structural engineer, and the tower was open to visitors from June to September before going back to the soil. The same material is now sold as packaging and insulation panels.

Your turn: list the materials in your last project and write next to each one where it goes when the building comes down.

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Photos: SnowFire (CC BY 4.0), Mycobond (CC BY-SA 2.0), Eric Klarenbeek (CC BY 3.0), Vera Meyer & Sven Pfeiffer (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons · AI voice

#mycelium #biofabrication #biomaterials #sustainablearchitecture #architecture by @design_computed

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2 days ago

Shanghai Tower: why does China's tallest skyscraper twist as it rises? 👇

At 632 m, Gensler's tower is the tallest building in China. The design team led by Jun Xia tested dozens of versions in a boundary-layer wind tunnel, changing the taper, the twist and the rounding of the corners, then kept the shape that disturbed the wind least. The design target was about 24% less wind load than a rectangular tower of the same height.

Your turn: before sizing the structure on your next tall project, sketch three plan shapes and ask which one the wind would hate least.

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AI voice

#shanghaitower #skyscraper #performancedesign #structuraldesign #architecturestudent by @design_computed

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3 days ago

Pantheon, Rome: how does an unreinforced concrete dome survive since 125 AD? 👇

Emperor Hadrian's builders made the dome 43.3 m wide and exactly as high inside, so a full sphere would just touch the floor. The wall is about 6.4 m thick at the base and about 1.2 m at the oculus. Roman concrete with no steel bars inside has nothing to rust and burst it from within, which is one reason it is still standing.

Your turn: on your next section drawing, colour every element by weight. Anything heavy near the top deserves a second look.

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Photos: John Samuel (CC BY-SA 4.0), Vyacheslav Argenberg (CC BY 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons · AI voice

#pantheon #romanconcrete #structuraldesign #architecturehistory #architecturestudent by @design_computed

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4 days ago

Why does the Beijing Water Cube look like a block of soap foam? 👇

PTW Architects and Arup built its frame from the Weaire–Phelan structure, a foam found by two Dublin physicists in 1993 that divides space with less surface than any foam known before. Cut the foam at an angle and you get the façade: cells that look random but repeat only a few shapes. The cushions are ETFE, a plastic film 0.2 mm thin, and in 2022 the pool became the Ice Cube for Olympic curling.

Your turn: scatter dots on a sheet, then draw each border halfway between neighbours. Try it in Grasshopper with the Voronoi component.

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Credits
Michael Phelps photo: nrcphotos, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Water Cube: Shujianyang, CC BY 4.0; Aaron Zhu, CC BY-SA 3.0; Oliver Propst, CC BY-SA 3.0; Jorge Láscar, CC BY 2.0; Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons
Giraffe: Leon Bastian; cracked earth: Şahin Doğdu (Pexels)
Videos: Eva Bronzini, Joolsmagools, Nuray, Kindel Media, SHVETS production (Pexels)
Photos and videos provided by Pexels
Music: Pixabay track (Pixabay Content License)
Voice: synthetic (AI)
Sound effects: mohha sfx pack

#watercube #voronoi #parametricdesign #computationaldesign #architecture by @design_computed

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5 days ago

How do you design a roof nobody can draw? Frei Otto asked soap. 👇

Otto built his career on form-finding: he stretched soap film and fine nets over wire models, and they settled into the shape with the least surface. For Munich he worked with Günter Behnisch and engineer Fritz Leonhardt: a steel cable net hung from masts up to 80 m tall, covered in clear acrylic panels. Today visitors can walk across the top of it on guided roof tours.

Your turn: bend a wire loop, dip it in soapy water, then sketch the film you see. That is your roof.

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Credits
Munich Olympic roof: Jorge Royan, CC BY-SA 3.0; Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0; GraphyArchy, CC BY-SA 4.0; Usien, CC BY-SA 3.0; Wikiolo, CC BY-SA 4.0; Strubbl, CC BY-SA 4.0; Englandfan, CC BY-SA 4.0; Henning Schlottmann, CC BY 1.0; Spielvogel, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Mark Spitz, 1972: UPI, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Kemal Christian Catovic (Pexels)
Videos: Eva Bronzini, Kindel Media (Pexels)
Photos and videos provided by Pexels
Music: Pixabay track (Pixabay Content License)
Voice: synthetic (AI)
Sound effects: mohha sfx pack

#freiotto #munich #minimalsurface #formfinding #architecture by @design_computed

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6 days ago

Why does the world's tallest building have a Y-shaped plan? 👇

Architect Adrian Smith and structural engineer Bill Baker at SOM gave Burj Khalifa a hexagonal core braced by three wings, so the tower works like one stiff tripod. Each wing has its own core and columns, and the setbacks were tuned in wind tunnel tests until the swirls behind the tower stopped lining up. It opened in January 2010 with 162 floors.

Your turn: sketch your tower's plan at three heights and change one corner each time. If the outline never repeats, the wind can't settle into a rhythm.

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Credits
Tom Cruise photo: Eva Rinaldi, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Burj Khalifa: Laika ac, CC BY-SA 2.0; Sergei Gussev, CC BY 2.0; Tim Reckmann, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Spider lily: Aliva Sahoo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Photos: Anna Ilina, Hasham Khosa (Pexels)
Videos: Nelemson G, Abid Ali, Tima Miroshnichenko, Rasul Yarichev, Andrey Denin, Kindel Media, Physical Pixel (Pexels)
Photos and videos provided by Pexels
Music: Pixabay track (Pixabay Content License)
Voice: synthetic (AI)
Sound effects: mohha sfx pack

#burjkhalifa #biomimicry #skyscraper #structuralengineering #architecture by @design_computed

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7 days ago

Why do the Al Bahr Towers in Abu Dhabi look like pineapples? 👇

Aedas finished the two 145 m towers in 2012 for the Abu Dhabi Investment Council. Each panel is a fiberglass-coated triangle that a computer-controlled motor unfolds or folds as the sun moves, and at night every panel folds flat. The screen also cuts the electricity needed for cooling by about 20%.

Your turn: on your next façade, draw the sun path first, then place shading only on the faces it hits.

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Credits
Al Bahr Towers: Diego F. Parra (Pexels)
Al Bahar Towers, Responsive Facade: still.epsilon, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr
Mashrabiya photos: Mohamed Hamed, Nader Ayman, Muhannad al zabidi, Sami Raad (Pexels)
Desert and glass footage: Fabio Partenheimer, Engin Akyurt, Jakub Zerdzicki, Laura Tancredi, Alexey Chudin, Meow Meow (Pexels)
Photos and videos provided by Pexels
Music: Experimental Cinematic Hip-Hop by Rockot (Pixabay)
Voice: synthetic (AI)
Sound effects: mohha sfx pack, Pixabay

#albahrtowers #kineticarchitecture #facadedesign #computationaldesign #architecture by @design_computed

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8 days ago

Why do the columns of Doha's convention centre look like trees? 👇

Arata Isozaki based the façade of the Qatar National Convention Centre (opened 2011) on the sidra, a desert tree with deep meaning in Islamic tradition. His engineer, Mutsuro Sasaki, shaped the steel with an evolutionary computer method that keeps adding material where stress is high and taking it away where it is low. Bones follow a similar rule, described by the surgeon Julius Wolff in 1892: they rebuild themselves along the loads they carry.

Your turn: sketch the load path first, then draw the structure along it.

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Credits
Qatar National Convention Centre: UNCTAD, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr
Femur cut: MAKY.OREL, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Spongy bone: Laboratoires Servier, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Knee joint model: Magda Ehlers; steel frame: shiva rijal; 3D printer: GregoriaN G (Pexels)
Photos and videos provided by Pexels
Concept: Arturo Tedeschi, AAD Algorithms-Aided Design (2014), ch. 10
Music: Experimental Cinematic Hip-Hop by Rockot (Pixabay)
Voice: synthetic (AI)
Sound effects: mohha sfx pack, Pixabay

#qatarnationalconventioncentre #topologyoptimization #biomimicry #structuraldesign #architecture by @design_computed

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9 days ago

Why the Eden Project looks like a cluster of bubbles 👇

The site was an old china clay pit in Cornwall, and its ground was still being reshaped while Grimshaw's team designed. A rigid hall would not fit, but bubbles can land on any ground and still join cleanly to each other. So the biomes became linked geodesic domes, the largest about 50 m tall, holding a whole rainforest. Each hexagon is an air pillow of ETFE film, which lets through the UV light that glass blocks.

Your turn: when the ground is uncertain, choose a shape that adapts, not one that needs a perfect site.

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Credits
Eden Project biomes: Chris Gorringe, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (geograph.org.uk)
Tropical Biome: Gareth James, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (geograph.org.uk)
Eden Project roof hexagonal design.jpg: FotoFree, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Music: original track generated with vidIQ
Voice: synthetic (AI)
Sound effects: mohha sfx pack

#edenproject #biomimicry #geodesicdome #grimshaw #computationaldesign by @design_computed

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10 days ago

Make a curved tower from straight sticks, in 3 steps 👇

1. Cut two cardboard rings and tie strings between them, straight down.
2. Hold the bottom ring and turn the top one.
3. The strings stay straight, yet together they draw a waisted curve: a hyperboloid.

Gaudí loved this surface for a practical reason: masons could shape it with straight guides, so a curved vault was no harder to set out than a flat one. You can see it in the windows and vaults of the Sagrada Família, begun in 1882.

Your turn: try the rings tonight, then rebuild it in Rhino with two circles and lines.

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Credits
Casa Batlló: AXP Photography (Pexels)
Sagrada Família: Svitlana Shakalova (Pexels)
Photos provided by Pexels
Music: original track generated with vidIQ
Voice: synthetic (AI)
Sound effects: mohha sfx pack

#gaudi #sagradafamilia #hyperboloid #geometry #computationaldesign by @design_computed

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11 days ago