3DPA 23/24 Techne W3 Structure

One of the main characteristics of architecture is its necessity  to be structural. Working with materials and form, architects and structural engineers have developed over millenaries methods to design, calculate and build structures with increasing freedom and accuracy. 

3D printing, with its promise of free form fabrication, challenges those methods towards new possibilities of material optimisation assisted by computer analysis. Yet extrusion based additive manufacturing like earth 3D printing have intrinsic constraints from the gravitational force exerted during the fabrication process, when the shape is not yet fully completed or the material is not yet solidified. 

This workshop will be the occasion to understand the structural behaviors at stake during the 3d printing process and to discover how geometry influences the printability and the structural properties of the object during and after the  3D printing process. Students will have the opportunity to design their own geometries,  to learn how to predict its structural behaviour using computational analysis, and to finally physically test their 3D printed design until failure.

Learning Objectives  

1. To understand Structural behaviours in 3d Printing
2. To get familiar with structural analysis with the Finite Element Method (FEM)
3. To be able to interpret data from FEM analysis. 
4. To incorporate structural logic in the design of geometry 
5. To create a suitable environment for physical testing of 3D printed objects
6. To be able to interpret data from Physical testing
7. To extract a set of simple logics to be used in further design (Structural toolkit)