Synopsis:
This research posits an innovative design methodology that establishes a complementary relationship between topological optimization, behavioural generative design algorithms, and robotic fabrication. It describes a hybrid of architectural and structural performance behaviours through the integration of multi-agent generative design algorithms and the BESO method. This approach creates a negotiation between concerns of architectural design and structural optimization in a simultaneous generative approach. This is an important shift from the normative sequential workflows that either inform generative approaches with structural analysis or operate sequentially to optimize the complex geometries already created within generative processes structurally.
A series of installations have been completed to prototype this approach at a small scale, to understand the implications of long-span large spatial structures. This approach enables the creation of complex, expressive architectural form which is highly efficient in terms of material and structural performance. The complexity and intricacy of the geometry generated through this process are demonstrated to be feasible to build through large-scale additive manufacturing.
It is part of the wider agenda, exploring the fabrication of algorithmically generated architectural forms through robotic fabrication techniques involving additive manufacturing. It also has the potential to create a closer working collaboration between architect and structural engineer in the early stages of design and to avoid the structural rationalization of unfeasible architectural forms in the AEC industry.