Paneling architectural freeform surfaces

The emergence of large-scale freeform shapes in architecture poses big challenges to the fabrication of such structures. A key problem is the approximation of the design surface by a union of patches, socalled panels, that can be manufactured with a selected technology at reasonable cost, while meeting the design intent and achieving the desired aesthetic quality of panel layout and surface smoothness. The production of curved panels is mostly based on molds. Since the cost of mold fabrication often dominates the panel cost, there is strong incentive to use the same mold for multiple panels. We cast the major practical requirements for architectural surface paneling, including mold reuse, into a global optimization framework that interleaves discrete and continuous optimization steps to minimize production cost while meeting user-specified quality constraints. The search space for optimization is mainly generated through controlled deviation from the design surface and tolerances on ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2010
• Where: SIGGRAPH
• Authors: Michael Eigensatz, Martin Kilian, Alexander Schiftner, Niloy J. Mitra, Helmut Pottmann, Mark Pauly
• Keywords: Architectural Surface Paneling, Computer Graphics, Design Surface, Large-scale Freeform Shapes, SIGGRAPH 2010