Adaptive everything

Self-Shading IGU Collaborative Research with EnneadLab Ennead Architects recently approached us to collaboratively submit an entry for a custom designed self shading insulated glazing unit for the TexFab competition . Over the course of two weeks, Brian Guerrero and Aniju Varughese from our building skin group , Colin Schless and Vamshi Gooje from our sustainability group and Jonatan Schumacher and Robert Otani from the Advanced Computational Modeling Team collaborated with five architects of the R&D entity EnneadLab to design an innovative IGU. The proposal was based on a research project that Ennead had previously started internally, and they saw the TexFab competition as an opportunity to continue their previous efforts. Ennead was also very interested in teaming up with our Skin, Sustainability and ACM groups for enhanced research opportunities. The project description below and the graphics were created together with Zach Olczak, Daria Supp, Brian Masuda and Jeff Geisin...

Basrah Main Stadium Construction Timeline Basrah Main Stadium under construction. Photo courtesy of Josef Hadi / Skyscraper City In the summer of 2010, we assisted 360 Architecture in designing the GFRP facade panels and connection brackets of the new 65,000 seat soccer stadium in Basrah . The fabrication process had to be reduced by 18 months in order to host the first match in 2013. Given that the panels measure about 100 feet, it takes about 4 months to create one mold. Hence, the number of molds required for GFRP panels had to be reduced from 10 to 5. We worked very closely with the 360 Architecture and with Bahrain based fabricator BFG to accomplish this goal. Here’s a look at the project timeline in photos. April 2010: We start developing panel geometry in Digital Project and use Excel to evaluate the design. Only one panel assembly was modeled, and then instantiated using the PowerCopy feature in Digital Project. July 2010: Brackets were designed in Digital P...