Design and construction interfaces: the pneumatic erection of gridshells

Abstract

The evolution of design and construction methods for lightweight structures historically feature patterns and similarities; elastic gridshells make no exception. Gridshells make efficient use of small sections of material to create large structures. Inspired by the advancements of Frei Otto and Dante Bini, the author develops a safe and economical method of construction for gridshells; such method bridges design and construction through the combination of an uplifting pneumatic falsework and a real-time monitoring system. The work applies Operational Research methods to develop digital and physical prototypes, including a full-scale prototype: the Airshell gridshell (refer to this video: https://youtu.be/6flPMmNxUVA).