More tessellated structures: Tesselion is an installation by American architect Skylar Tibbits, constructed from 187 aluminium panels.
"Tesselion is a full scale prototype installation showing the possibilities for constructing doubly curved surfaces from flat sheet material," says Tibbits.
The project is on show at the Philadelphia University Architecture and Design Centre until October.
The following is from Tibbits:
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A new era of digital technology has emerged to enable freedom of design expression. Increasing complexity in surface curvature through rapidly developing digital techniques has enhanced an age old design problem of constructability of non-standard surface geometries. Along with the software for creating this complexity, intelligent capabilities for construction can be utilized through algorithmic and parametric logic.
Simultaneously, improvements in fabrication technologies are clearing the way for a fully unified design and construction process. Simultaneously, the possibilities for both design and fabrication are reinvigorating the professional role of the architect.
Tesselion is a built project which demonstrates a system of flat panel tessellation derived from complex surfaces to enable ease in constructability and a directly evolved spatial environment through lighting, programmatic adaptation and structural simplicity. Each panel's uniqueness is afforded by the efficiency of digital fabrication while coded parametric relationships allow an emergent structural efficiency.
Recently the development of planar quadrilateral meshes has become a strong interest in the architectural community due to their potential ease for constructing complex surfaces. The project responds to this problem and proposes a method for flat panelization of free form surfaces which provides large scale, efficient and economic construction from flat sheet material.
Fabrication Sponsor: Jared Laucks & Continental Sign