The researchers and students from the University of Stuttgart employed robots to construct a pavilion inspired by the anatomy of sea urchins. The pavilion is made up of stitched plywood elements formed into an arched structure. Researchers studied sea urchins to develop a new fabrication technique using a robot to bend and stitch together custom laminated plywood pieces to create the structure, transferring forces like the fibrous connections in a sea urchin's shell. The goal was to show the potential of computational design, simulation, and fabrication processes in architecture.

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ICD/ITKE Research Pavilion
2015-16
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A study by
B.Karthikeyan (1701016010XX)
S.Raghunandan (170101601028)

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Overview
Researchers and students from the University of Stuttgart employed robots to mould
and stitch together this laminated plywood pavilion, which is based on the anatomy of
a sea urchin.
Goals
The pavilions are all intended to show the potential of computational design, simulation and
fabrication processes in architecture.
Specifications
Made up of stitched plywood elements, the arched structure is the latest in an annual pavilion
series produced under the leadership of Achim Menges, who heads up the school's Institute for
Computational Design (ICD), and Jan Knippers from the Institute of Building Structures and
Structural Design (ITKE).
Architecture and engineering students from the school's architecture and urban planning faculty
worked alongside a team of biologists and palaeontologists to develop the ICD/ITKE Research
Pavilion 2015/16.
APPROACH
The project took as its starting point the jointed plate structures found in sand dollars – a type of
flat, burrowing sea urchin – and investigated how this naturally occurring structure could be
applied to construction.
The school has already made use of research studies on sea urchins to develop timber plate
construction methods for a faceted pavilion and a plywood exhibition hall.
But the team conducted further research with biologists from the University of Tübingen to
develop a new fabrication technique for the year's structure.
This involves using a robot to bend sheets of custom-laminated beech plywood to create
double-layered segments.
These are then passed through an industrial sewing machine to both lace the pieces together and
to prevent the layers of laminated wood from separating. The stitched joints transfer tensile

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forces between the segments, playing a similar role to the fibrous connections found between the
plates of a sea urchin's shell.
Concept
Within the taxonomic phylum of Echinodermata two species of the class Echinoidea (sea urchin)
and the order Clypeasteroida (sand dollar) were identified as particularly promising for the
transfer of morphological principles as well as procedural principles of growth for an integrative
design process.

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It was concluded that the performance of these segmented lightweight structures relies not only
on the arrangement of its individual calcite plates, but also on the geometric morphology of a
double layered system and the differentiation within the material. Most importantly however, the
calcite plates of some sea urchin species are connected through fibrous elements in addition to
the finger joints, and it can be hypothesized that this multi-material connection plays an
important role in maintaining the integrity of the sea urchin’s shell during growth and exposure
to external forces.
IMAGE DESCRIPTION
Concept derivation

5. 4
Openings as sea urchins
Finger joint and stitched plywoods
Resource : https://vimeo.com/165006724