Rise & Fall

Aerial Cartography / 2015

Continuing the seminar culture of approaching architectural design with machine vision, our project Rise and Fall is about using drones and gravity to fabricate lightweight, high-strength carbon fiber shell structure on site, which can be in urban context or a hard to reach remote area.  We imagine in the near future anyone who has access to the internet can pick and choose a structure with varying size, height, density, and porosity.

Comparing to conventional construction method which consists of team of workers, cranks hoisting traditional materials such as wood or steel beams, and trucks transporting materials and tools, drones are relatively inexpensive, flexible, and versatile. 

The structure is essentially shaped by gravitational force in the form of catenary lines, it’s main structure and sub-structures are made based on different specifications of carbon fibers. The process starts with multiple drones (from 2 - 10 based on the planometric design of the structure) hoisting the main catenary lines which intersect and form the overall shape of one or multiple domes.  Each line, made of carbon fiber yarn, is hoisted through a pot of fast-curing epoxy resin and held in shape aloft.  Weaver drones will then proceed to build up density of the shell by weaving around and through the main catenary lines with impregnated fiber yarn until the desired porosity is reached.  

In the development of this idea, the drones will be employed for scanning and geo-mapping the site. Photogrammetry will be generated from the data to determine and set constraints so that the light weight high strength shell can be made specifically based on the site parameters.  

The shell structure is designed digitally through 3D and parametric tools that simulate gravity in real life, while its structural integrity is feed into Karamba for Finite Element Analysis which can also inform the patterning of the shell in terms of load path.

The deployment and delivery of these light weight high strength shell could vary. Sometimes they could be set on an urban environment where the buildings are use as anchor points, and where drones the use to hold and other drones are use to weave on site. In other scenarios, the shells could be delivered and constructed on remote areas where access is hard and where the terrain topography is harsh. These shell could be adjusted in high and points of support so that they could adjust to the terrain. In other scenarios, these shells could be use for special event such as music concerts in which the shells could provide shelter for the people at the event.