Non-standard patterns for gridshell structures: Fabrication and structural optimization

The design of gridshells is subject to strong mechanical and fabrication constraints, which remain largely unexplored for non-regular patterns. The main technological constraints for glazed gridshells are related to the planarity of facets and the existence of torsion-free offsets. The authors propose indicators to evaluate a priori the quality of design space of gridshells covered with different patterns for these fabrication constraints. By comparing these metrics, the kagome grid pattern is identified as a pattern with a complexity similar to the ubiquitous quadrilateral pattern. Finally, the authors propose to generate gridshells with planar facets with the marionette technique and to explore the resulting design space by the means of multi-objective optimization. The results of the study show that our framework for shape modeling has similar performances as more usual frameworks, like NURBS modeling, while maintaining the facet planarity.