presenting an article about morphogenesis in architecture

1. Morphogenesis of surfaces with
planar lines of curvature and
application to architectural
design
Presenter: Fatemeh Zamani
Authors: Romain Mesnil, Cyril Douthe, Olivier
Baverel, Bruno Léger
journal:Automation in Construction

2. About the journal
Aims & Scope
Automation in Construction is an international journal for the publication of original
research papers. The journal publishes refereed material on all aspects pertaining to
the use of Information Technologies in Design, Engineering, Construction
Technologies, and Maintenance and Management of Constructed Facilities. The
scope of Automation in Construction is broad, encompassing all stages of the
construction life cycle from initial planning and design, through construction of the
facility, its operation and maintenance, to the eventual dismantling and recycling of
buildings and engineering structures. The following list of topics is not intended to
be exhaustive, but rather to indicate topics that fall within the journal's purview:
• Computer-aided design, product modeling, decision support systems, classification
and standardization, product data interchange
• Computer-aided engineering, process simulation models, graphics
• Robotics, metrology, logistics, automated inspection, demolition/remediation
• Facilities management, management information systems, intelligent control
systems.
This journal is supported by the following organisations:
- Education in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe (eCAADe)
- International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction (IAARC)
- International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction
(C.I.B.)

3. Author’s
Background
 Romain Mesnil
 I am a structural engineer and researcher
currently leading Build'in, a technological
platform on construction automation and
digital design. I closely collaborate with the
Navier lab and its team Architected
Materials and Structures. My personal
research interest deals with generative
design, discrete geometry, building systems
and structural optimisation. You can find out
more on our website www.buildin-enpc.fr

4. +33164153740
cyril.douthe@enpc.fr
CYRIL DOUTHE
Research topics
•Ingénierie des structures : de la conception à la fabrication,
•Géométrie, Structure et Architecture : recherche de forme et optimisation,
•Non-linéarité géométrique dans les structures: mise en forme et instabilité,
•Structures légères dans le génie civil: ouvrages pare-blocs et ouvrages à câbles.
Teaching activities: Ass. Prof. ENPC
•In charge of Structural design (Applied) course
•In charge of two design-built workshop: Building Freeform, Crossing my bridge
•Lecturer of the structural mechanics course and Structural design (Theory) course
On-going project
•AAP I-Sites GAMES: Geometry for Architectural, Mechanical and Structural Engineering
•PN C2ROP: Modelling and experiment on soft barrier against rockfall
•Gemetrical and topological optimisation of gridshells, ENPC PhD thesis by R. Boutillier
•Design
Parcours professionnel
•2010-… :Researcher at Univ. Gustave Eiffel, at Navier lab since 2015 (member of the Architectured Material and Structures team);
•2009-2010 : Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship with mobility at the Metal Structures Laboratory from National Technical University of
Athens (NTUA, Greece);
•2007-2009: Post-doctoral fellowship at the Metal Structures Laboratory de la NTUA, Greece ;
•2004-2007: PhD thesis at ENPC, untitled « Study of prestressed slender beams in composites materials, application to the design of gridshells ».
•2000-2004: Education as Structural Engineer at ENPC.
Professionnal affiliations
•Member of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structure
•In charge of the collaborative website THINkSHELL : structural expeditions.

5.  Professor ENS Architecture
Grenoble, Professor Ecole des Ponts
Paristech. Please visit
 http://thinkshell.fr/en/
 and
 https://www.buildin-enpc.fr/
 Member of the Executive Council of
the international association for
shells and spatial structures, Design
by Data Executive Master -
President of the Academic Board

6. keywords
 Super-canal surface
 Fabrication-aware design
 Cyclidic net
 Architectural geometry
 Structural morphogenesis
 Façade

7. Introduction
1- Constructive geometry in architecture :
The construction of architectural shapes is subject to technological
constraints that highly impact the economy of the cladding and structure.
The study that aims at expressing technological requirements as
geometrical constraints is often referred to as fabrication-aware design in
the computer science community, whereas architects or engineers
speak of shape rationalisation or constructive geometry
2- Geometrically-constrained design strategy:
The natural way to deal with construction constraints is to generate a
design-space of shapes that satisfy the most critical fabrication-constraints.
This approach, known as “geometrically-constrained design
strategy” has been used extensively in the history of architecture
* These are two main approaches which are mentioned in this Article

8. Scope
 a methodology to generate surfaces with planar lines of curvature from two or
three curves
 Meshing with planar quadrilateral facets and optimal offset properties for the
structural layout are guaranteed.
 methodology relies on the invariance of circular meshes by spherical
inversion and discrete Combescure transformations, and uses parametrisation
of surfaces with cyclidic patches
 super-canal surfaces
 Architectural shapes and their Connection to shell theory through Equilibrium
of these shapes under uniform normal loading

9. Methodology
 Möbious geometry and cyclidic nets = geometry of circles in
space
 Geometrical properties of canal surface
 Möbius transformations
 Combescure transformations
 Efficient computation of Combescure transformations
 Super-canal surface
METHODOLOGY
ASPECTS
ELEMENTSCYCLIDIC NETS
GEOMETRYMOBIOUS
TRANSFORMATION
MOBIOUS TRNS
COMBESCURE
TRNS

10. Explanation
of
methodology
The way of answer for generating the complex free-form structures
and solving their equilibrium structural behaviors is the usage of
cyclidic nets trough Mobious Geometry.in other hand the mobious
geometry is the latest solution for such problems.this specific
geometry has the following transformations:
1- mobious transformation
2-combescure transformation
These two kind of transformation lead to super-surface canals

11. Discussion
 Algorithmic performance
 Properties of the structural layout
 Shape explorations : potential and limitations
 Algorithm for spheres generation

12. Result
&
conclusion
1- This paper presented a new family of shapes for the rationalisation
of free-form structures and envelopes. It enriches the formal vocabulary
of geometrically-constrained design approaches, and has many relevant
applications, from pneumatic structures to glazed gridshells.
2- A connection to shell theory was recalled and showed that the surfaces created
with this method are at equilibrium under normal uniform load.
Moreover, the lines of curvatures, that are used for discretisation of
super-canal surfaces correspond to lines of principal stresses, making
the meshes efficient for both fabrication and structural performance.
The tools developed for the shape generation were used in the practical
context of a workshop for architecture and engineering students
3- lack of design tools for complex structures:
In 2015 William Baker has been shown that there are lack of design tools for designers and
architects,
So Super-canal surfaces are the key which they are easily usable as a design tool.
They also have buildability and there mechanical behavior under normal load of free-form
structures is equilibirium.
So for geometrical modeling in architecture the Mobius geometry is a best solutions.

14. Generation of a C-canal surface.