Priscila Lena Farias / Anna Calvera Marcos da Costa ... - Blucher

Design of elastic form with parametric simulation
LARA, Arthur H. / Professor / Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo / University of São Paulo
MAGRI, Paulo H. G. / Master student in Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo / University of São Paulo
CAMPOS, Patricia F. / Master student in Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo / University of São Paulo
SILVA, Nayara V. / Architect / Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo / UFRJ
NOLLA, Ieda Maria / Professor / FATEC-SP
Digital Design / Parametric Systems / Elastic Curve / Smart
Materials
Today design fabrication faces to the dynamics of large-scale
production is necessary to use advanced modeling systems. The
research investigates an algorithmic approach deepens the elastic
forces and their relationship with nature. We found that the
methodology used here allows alternative and collaborative access
that can help in urgent demand in the adequacy of our cities,
architecture and objects to drastic climate change and energy.
1. Introduction
The digital systems helped by CAD/CAM design have given, within
a few decades, dynamism to the design seen before only in the
goods and objects production. The belated industrialization of civil
construction is related to the poor technology and resistance of
the parametric systems evolution and the implementation of new
algorithms to its representation. These integrated systems give
a new hierarchy to the productive chain permitting the simulation
and, consequently, the cost reduction. According to Katz (2010),
the project concepts and paradigms already existed even before
computers got recognized through the use of parametric tools,
which besides facilitating the mathematical and algorithmic link
of the shape, also simplify the manipulation and alteration work.
These tools and techniques permit an increased flexibility in the
development and inspiration of works and in the shape creation.
The work with parametric systems is not recent. In the Renascence
the artists and architects utilized mathematical expressions
to define architectonic elements. That way, it was possible
to build, for example, pillars with proportions between the diameter
and the height, keeping, thus, the building styles.
According to AMORIM (2010) the parametric systems differ from
the traditional systems of digital design for keeping the model
capacity for being altered during the whole design process and
for permitting the generation and testing of a great quantity of
versions in a environment controlled from the mere change of
values of a specific parameter.
The changes are big and the higher investment is aimed at the
reeducation of the workforce, at the acquisition and manipulation
of new technologies. They are not aimed at the acquisition
of digital systems. To be automatized, dynamic and produced
at a large scale with quality and energetic use, it is necessary to
utilize an advanced modeling.
The parametric programs bring many advantages to the project.
It is possible to combine the dynamism with the discovery of
new materials. An example is the recent utilization of bamboo in
structures with an optimized and more elaborate performance
of the material. In this research the use was simulated, tested
and compared to what happens in nature.
Another advantage brought with the use of parametrization is
the possibility of shape variability. That happens since the alteration
of the constructive data reflects directly on the behavior
of the parametrized objects (SILVA JUNIOR, 2011, p. 63).
What would be the changes or new possibilities regarding the
form dominance in the face of the news brought by the “Information
Era”? It is possible to notice the numeric machine associated
to the real time communication in our economical and social
relationships, used to conduct an alteration without precedents
in the way people relate to objects, houses and cities. The adjective
“intelligent” is added to our attitudes and objects so that the
energetic efficiency and the environmental preoccupations are
guaranteed in their sustainability and that the materials used
can be renewable.
For Koralechi (2000) the computational architectures require
certain design strategies, which provide a dynamic manipulation
of them with a high degree of indetermination. However, the
existence of such strategies is not considered as a limiting factor
in the project. Unpredictability, uncertainty and indetermination
are still present and so is the possibility for finding out the form.
In Algorithmic Architecture, de K. Terzidis, Antonio Picon suggests
two positions regarding calculus in architecture. The first
restricts the use of the machine (computer) as an advanced
tool for the creation of more sophisticated forms. The second,
in which Tarzidis belongs, would be composed of projectors who
use the programming for using the machine more creatively.
2. Simulations with physical forces and new
materials
Here, the investigation deepens some computational tools helping
in the process of digital modeling of elastic force (bend),
which consists of the simulation of a certain force application
to materials that have some kind of elastic flexure (non elastic).
These simulations indicating form ruptures and alterations
permit the energy release and the return to its initial position.
Design Frontiers: Territiories, Concepts, Technologies / Proceedings of the 8th Conference of the International Committee for
Design History & Design Studies - ICDHS 2012 / São Paulo, Brazil / © 2012 Blucher / ISBN 978-85-212-0692-7