Research Pavilion ICD/ITKE University of Stuttgart, DE, 2010

At the end of July 2010, the ICD and the ITKE of the Stuttgart University completed the construction of a temporary Research Pavilion made of timber, a point of intersection between research and science. In cooperation with students, the scientists of both institutes investigated how innovative computer-based design methods as well as the numeric simulation both of the structural frame's and the material's performance can lead to new architectural and structural possibilities that are based on the elastic properties of timber. The bending-active structural frame of the Research Pavilion could demonstrate an approach to saving material in the supporting framework, unusual in lightweight design. Flexural stress is not avoided but actively used in order to give extremely thin plywood strips the necessary stiffness. Based on the bending prestress of the supporting elements and their coupling it is possible to produce an extremely light yet very stiff structure.

Project team: Institute of Computer-Based Design - Prof. Achim Menges, Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design - Prof. Jan Knippers

Students: Andreas Eisenhardt, Manuel Vollrath, Kristine Wächter, Thomas Irowetz, Oliver David Krieg, Ádmir Mahmutovic, Peter Meschendörfer, Leopold Möhler, Michael Pelzer, Konrad Zerbe

Scientists: Moritz Fleischmann (Head of Project), Simon Schleicher
(Head of Project), Christopher Robeller (Structural Management), Julian
Lienhard (Structural Design), Diana D’Souza (Structural Design), Karola
Dierichs (Documentation)

Input of Julian Lienhard, str.ucture engineer: concept development, form-finding and structural design with finite element simulation