Design, fabrication and assembly of a geodesic gridshell in a student workshop

This paper describes the design, fabrication and assembly of an 11x11 m gridshell built of plywood laths during a two and a half day workshop in a new undergraduate course about parametric design and digital fabrication. The question was how to use full-scale prototyping to summarize and integrate the learning outcomes in this course. A challenge was how to execute all production during two consecutive days utilizing all 35 students. Exploiting a geodesic grid design, that is curves whose curvature vector is parallel with the surface normal, the gridshell was made of straight predrilled laths that were bent and locked into shape using a sequential erection method. The design was incorporated in a full parametric model including automated design checks and the generation of all necessary production drawings.The workshop and the preparatory work described in this paper was a collaboration between Chalmers, BIG Engineering, Buro Happold and Thornton Tomasetti\u27s CORE studio