Geometrical Solution Space for Grid Structures with Double-Walled Edges

This paper introduces a method for creating double-curved grid structures made out of flat components, where fabrication is limited to only 2-dimensional cutting, making complex architectural structures accessible to a wider audience at a lower cost. The focus of the paper is to identify the limitations and to map the geometric solution-space of the method for real world construction applications. A double-walled nature of the structure enables us to significantly reduce the geometric complexity of the grid structure’s nodes – instead of needing to find a combined geometric intersection for all edges meeting at a node, our solution instead requires determining a pair of adjacent planes at a time, as many times as a node’s degree. But if any of these pairs of planes around a node is torsioned relative to the node’s normal, then collisions might occur between different pairs of planes. This paper discusses the geometric solution-space under which such collisions are avoided, making the structural joints easy to build. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate the use of this method in a design-build pavilion that was realized at the Singapore University of Technology and Design in 2013.