-Reflection Paper-
Rosenstein Pavilion was built for a construction bionics exhibition in Stuttgart. Concrete structure demonstrates status of biological inspiration in architectural and constructional processes. Functionally graded concrete (FDC) which was developed in ILEK emphasized the mineral resources consumption and sustainability. FDC was shown as a solution for minimising the weight of components.
During the design process, researchers initiated how bio-inspired solutions could be part of architectural solutions on an architectural scale. The pavilion design separated into 3 main processes; form generation, structural analysis and material distribution and requirements, limitations were separated into those 3 main steps. Load-bearing structure was located in a museum the way that organises space around it. On the contrary to the museum's massive structure, the pavilion's lightweight structure comes to the forefront thanks to oppositeness of structural differences. Funnelled geometry which was modelled with RhinoVault developed to achieve shell action. In consequence of the temporary character of the exhibition, the pavilion should be prefabricated and assembled on site. The framework developed by ILEK produced by CNC gives a chance to prefabricated methods. Concrete mixture, SikaGrout (R) 551 and maximum grain size of 1mm was chosen as most appropriate.For structural analysis, Millipede plug-in used for evaluation of maximal and minimal principal stress distribution. Results of Millipede analysis were verified by using Sofistik 2016. Functionally graded exoskeletal structures of maritime organisms research developed the main concept for bio-inspired tissue. The structure of Heterocentrotus mammillatus which has graditon of porosity ensure the requirement of load-bearing structure strategy for the pavilion.
To sum up, load-bearing structure was designed with bio-inspired sources by using computational methods. In contrast to concrete construction solutions, it is samples of free-form lightweight structure.
References:Kovaleva, D., Gericke, O., Kappes, J., Tomovic, I., & Sobek, W. (2019).
Rosenstein Pavilion: Design and structural analysis of a functionally graded concrete
shell. In Structures (Vol. 18, pp. 91-101). Elsevier.