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Poly-Hypar Membrane

The smooth poly-hypar surface structure is a new type of doubly curved freeform shell developed by Dr. Cao in her doctoral thesis at ETH Zurich. As combinations of hyperbolic paraboloids (hypars), smooth poly-hypar surfaces are ruled locally while globally appearing to be continuous freeform. The double curvature of the individual hypar modules and the smooth connections between them ensure global bending free structural behavior of the surface, while the ruled geometrical property of the surface allows the relatively low cost of construction.

This workshop introduces this design and fabrication method for freeform surfaces. Accordingly, the smooth poly-hypar surface prototype integrates structural efficiency, construction convenience, and energy sustainability. The basic knowledge of freeform structural design is given at first, followed by a tutorial for a digital tool to design smooth poly-hypar surface structure. Then students are guided to design a modular freeform membrane unit that can be fast constructed and applied to different functional requirements in multiple scenarios. In the end, a 1:1 scale unit is constructed as a test.

Video Summary



Conceptualization and Experimentation



Assembly



Details



Location

Tongji University
Shanghai, China

Time

2023

Principal Investigator

Dr. Ting Cao
Juan Jose Castellon (Co-PI)

Team

Yi Lu
Hanzhang Shen
Chih Han
Lingmo Wei
Bangyan Chen
Yunxi Wu
Zihao Lin
Yitong Fang
Zixin Su
Wenqian Ma
Chiawei Kang
Jue Wang
Yifu Zuo

Collaborators

Dr. Zongshuai Wan

Sponsors

Digital Futures
Tongji University

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