Computational Design and Fabrication of a Bending-Active Structure Using Fiberglass: A Bioinspired Pavilion Mimicking Marine Microorganism Radiolaria

Bio-inspired architectural designs are often superior for their aesthetics and structural performance. Mimicking forms and loading states of a biological structure is complex as it requires a delicate balance among geometry, material properties, and interacting forces. The goal of this work is to design a biomimetic, ultra-lightweight, bending-active structure utilizing an informed integral design approach, and thereby constructing a self-supporting cellular pavilion. A bioinspired pavilion has been designed and constructed based on the natural cellular organization observed in Radiolaria, a deep-sea microorganism. The cellularity was mimicked via Voronoi tessellation in the structure of the pavilion, whose structural performance was evaluated using finite element analysis. Accordingly, funicular structure design strategies were studied with a focus on cellular distributions and concentration responding to areas with high structural stress. The computer aided custom designed pavilion was constructed with engineered, in-house fabricated fiberglass composite materials. The bending-active lightweight structure was also validated through material performance inquiry, a partial full-scale cellular assembly, and the full-size pavilion construction. This work contributes to the design approach comprising a bending-active form-finding schematic strategy to construct the elastic bending-active structure physically and simulate computationally within the context of nature inspired innovative lightweight structure design.