Project Information
The ITECH2020 research pavilion developed by the Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) and the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE), for the Plant Biomechanics Group Freiburg, explores building-scale fabrication of natural fiber reinforced polymers. The novel application of a material system consisting of flax fibers and an epoxy matrix is the subject of a dedicated ITECH Design Studio. It relies on the affordances and characteristics of fiber construction, building on the experience on technical composites accumulated at the research institutes and inside the ITECH Master Programme at the University of Stuttgart.
The research investigates the mechanical capacity of the lightweight material systems and proposes a prefabrication approach for the construction of a 50 square-meter lecture space on the University of Freiburg Botanical Garden’s grounds. The fifteen load-bearing flax fiber reinforced polymer components have been wound by an industrial robot in a process that extends the technical capabilities as well as the scope of material-informed automated additive manufacturing. The research builds on a series of successful pavilions, which investigate integrative computational design, engineering and fabrication, such as the BUGA Fiber Pavilion, and explores their spatial ramifications and construction possibilities.
The research and development of the project have been conducted as part of the ITECH course Performative Morphology. Research and development of the project were completed by students and researchers within an interdisciplinary team of architects, engineers with input from biologists. The industrial fabrication of the structure was realized by industry-partner FibR GmbH. The structure will be unveiled in Spring-Summer 2021, in Freiburg.
Credits
Supervisors
Prof. AA Dipl.(Hons) Achim Menges – ICD, University of Stuttgart
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jan Knippers – ITKE, University of Stuttgart
Tutors
Serban Bodea, Niccolo Dambrosio, Christoph Zechmeister, Marta Gil-Perez, Bas Rongen
ITECH Academic coordinator
Katja Rinderspacher – ICD, University of Stuttgart
Students
Talal Ammouri, Karen Andrea Antorveza Paez, Okan Basnak, Guillaume Caussarieu, Vanessa Costalonga Martins, Sacha Joseph Cutajar, Zhetao Dong, Kurt Drachenberg, Edith Anahi Gonzalez San Martin, Yanan Guo, James Hayward, Silvana Herrera, Jeongwoo Jang, Ridvan Kahraman, Laura Kiesewetter, Maximilian Anatol Klammer, Nicolas Kubail Kalousdian, Grzegorz Łochnicki, Simon Jacob Lut, Francesco Milano, Eda Özdemir, Yue Qi, Gabriel Rihaczek, Hooman Salyani, Anke Kristina Schramm, Nasim Sehat, Lasath Ryan Siriwardena, Tim Stark, Zi Jie, Jake Tan, Vaia Tsiokou, Christo van der Hoven, Shu Chuan Yao, Ruqing Zhong