Thermal Responsive Envelope: Computational Assembling Behavioural Composites by Additive and Subtractive Processes

The paper presents an architectural computational method and model, which, through additive and subtractive processes, create composite elements with bending behaviour based on thermal variations in the surrounding climatic environment. The present effort is focused on the manipulation of assembly composite layers and their relative layer lengths thereby embedding the merged material effect to create a responsive behavioural architectural envelope. Copper and polypropylene are used as base materials for the composite structure due to their high differences in thermal expansion, surface emissivity alterations, their respective durability and copper’s architectural (visual and transformative) aesthetic qualities. Through the use of an evolutionary solver, the composite structure of the elements are organised to find the bending behaviour specified by and for the thermal environments. The entire model includes the calculation of bending behaviour, the calculation of perceived temperatures inside the envelope and the evolutionary module, which in a design process advance the composite structure in relation to the thermal environment desired. The research presents the methods used and developed, the way in which the behavioural composites are organised in modules and how they act and perform. Furthermore, a large full-scale prototype is made as a demonstrator and experimental setup for post-construct analysis and evaluation of the design research. The work finds that the presented method and model can create ‘programmed’ responsive composite architectural envelopes and that the organisational method of nested modular elements with nested responsive composites enables a modular building method with embedded dynamic responsive properties.