Isoropia: an Encompassing Approach for the Design, Analysis and Form-Finding of Bending-Active Textile Hybrids

This paper discusses the design, simulation and construction of a bending-active textile hybrid structure commissioned to the authors as part of the 2018 Venice Biennale. The hybrid structure combines the flexibility and elastic properties of GFRP rods together with bespoke CNC knitted fabric, creating a subtle equilibrium of forces along the unfolding of the installation. Building on the knowledge developed by the authors on previous bending-active hybrid prototypes, the structure represents the latest effort in terms of integration of design analysis tools within a holistic and comprehensive workflow. This enables designers to step fluently from initial concept development and definition of overall shape to the final specification of the knitted membrane structure on loop level for digital fabrication. With particular emphasis on the simulation tools employed, the paper will focus on the most up-to-date computational technologies and numerical approaches that are currently being developed for the design and analysis of bending-active and textile hybrid structures. Specifically, three distinct environments were used to form-find and analyse the structural behavior of the installation, these environments being Kangaroo (vector-based approach), Kiwi3d (Isogeometric Analysis) and SOFiSTiK (Finite Element Analysis). This all-encompassing approach provided the perfect platform to cross-benchmark the three different methods, highlighting the qualities of each one and providing valuable information on the most appropriate software within a certain stage of design.