Catenary Concrete Funicular Formwork

Today architectural workflows for the development of complex geometries and their translation to physical objects rely on complex computational processes. The generation of form has become intrinsically tied to computer simulation in response to data sets and external information. Prior to the advent of these technologies, forms were generated and understood through analogue methodologies that depended on the behavior of the material in response to a set of physical conditions, as seen in the work of Heinz Isler and Miguel Fisac. 

The ambition of the research is to continue an ongoing investigation into the possibilities of generating form and space at the interstices of the digital and the handmade. The project builds on previous investigations into complex thin concrete forming and dynamic numerically controlled formworks. The study intends to leverage the use of physical catenary and funicular modeling in conjunction with the precision of robotic cement extrusion for the development of pattern-based thin concrete shells. The result is a sampling of catenary filters that combines physical space and architectural emotion through gravity, matter, light and hybridized ways of making.