Origami folded surfaces: kinetic system behind the folding

“Today’s intensification of social and urban change, coupled with the responsibility of issues of sustainability, amplifies the demand for interactive architectural solutions. In the context of architectural need, the attribute of being able to adapt to changing needs is paramount in contemporary society.” (Fox and Kemp, 2009). Since the 1960’s that Architecture is progressively more merged with several other fields. Fields like biology, robotics, mechanics, electronics, parametric design, digital fabrication and so many others get to be together through Architecture. It is getting easier and more feasible for the designer to create buildings that are kinetic, interactive and/or responsive in order to communicate with users, enhance the building’s performance in response to changing atmospheric conditions and even transform its own geometry to reconfigure spaces as a functional answer to changing demands. The use of kinetic buildings, or kinetic elements in a building is becoming a natural response to concrete architecture solutions in order to make buildings “intelligent” and “alive” so they can meet the actual demands of users and use the technological means that are currently available. On this sense this paper focuses specifically on kinetic architectural systems through the use of Rigid Origami Surfaces. Their geometry gives them elastic capacities and is versatile enough to be used in a wide set of systems.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Interaction with a kinetic folded surface

Kinetic systems offers new perspectives and design innovation in research and practice. These systems have been used by architects as an approach that embeds computation intelligence to create flexible and adaptable architectural spaces according to users changing needs and desires as a way to respond to an increasingly technological society. The presented research attempts to answer to this question based on the results of a multidisciplinary on-going work developed at digital fabrication laboratory Vitruvius Fablab-IUL in Lisbon. The main goal is to explore the transformation of the shape of a construction by mechanisms which allow adaptation either to environmental conditions or to the needs of the user. This paper reports the initial development of a kinetic system based on an origami foldable surface actuated by a user. The user can manipulate a small scale model of the surface and evaluate at all times if it is achieving the desired geometryinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Kinetic origami surfaces: from simulation to fabrication

On nowadays social, technological and economic context everything changes constantly so there is the persistent need to adapt at all levels. This research defends that Architecture should do the same through the use of kinetic and interactive buildings, or elements in a building. These elements should allow the building to adapt to changing needs and conditions. This article describes the current state of an ongoing research that proposes the use of kinetic Rigid Origami foldable surfaces to be used as roofs for spaces with big spans and the practical contribution that the Design Studio Surfaces INPLAY has brought to it

Interactive design for everyone: from folding to programing

In our society today technology is already part of the normal day life, but it is something still not available to everyone. There are some that cannot reach it the same way as others do, either because of less resources or because learning can be quite a challenge. After the development of several works with a partnership between VFabLab and EPIS that involved basic level schools, the workshop that will be explained, describes how students in special learning programs get in touch with subjects like digital fabrication; interactive architecture, design, and programing

KOS - kinetic origami surface

In an increasingly technological, informed and demanding society Architecture should be able to answer to its space require-ments using materials and technological resources that today has at its service. Kinetic systems have been used by architects as an approach that embeds computation intelligence to create flexible and adaptable architectural spaces according to users’ changing needs and desires. This paper describes one possible way of exploring kinetic systems to develop a foldable surface with geometric patterns based on the rules of rigid origami. This surface aims to take advantage of the elastic ca-pacities given to a planar material by its folding. After folding the sur-face can assume different forms in order to create a range of spatial configurations ordered by a user through a remote control.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Origami tesselations: folding algorithms from local to global

Rigid Origami folding surfaces have very interesting qualities for Architecture and Engi-neering for their geometric, structural and elastic qualities. The ability to turn a flat element, isotropic, without any structural capacity, into a self-supporting element through folds in the material opens the door to a multitude of uses. Besides that the intrinsic geometry of the crease pattern may allow the surface to assume doubly curved forms while the flat element, before the folding, could never do it without the deformation of the material. (Schenk, 2011) (Demaine, 2011). The main objective of this PhD research is to reach a workflow from the definition of the geometry of the flat foldable surfaces to their implementation on a construction site. This paper will address mainly the steps taken to the parameterization of the Rigid Origami ge-ometries. We intend to establish a method to simulate the folding of regular crease pat-terns (tessellations) by understanding the geometric operations on the smallest set of faces (local) that can be reproduced to simulate the whole group (global).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Seeing is believing: impact of digital simulation pedagogical use in spatial geometry classes

Digital simulators have an interesting potential to explain the relationships between two or more variables in a system, facilitating the activation of learning processes and favoring the occurrence of meaningful learning with positive impact on academic performance. To study the impact of the use of digital simulation on learning and academic performance of 9th graders in Spatial Geometry a quasi-experimental study was carried out, with a control group and pre-test/post-test design. The analysis of covariance of the post-test results controlled by the pre-test results revealed a significant improvement in the general academic performance of the experimental group, with a significant improvement of skills related to measurement and associations between nets and solids. Students’ positive opinions suggest the experience promoted the occurrence of meaningful learning. Implications for practice point to the pedagogical adoption of such digital resources and special attention to the educational context.AF10-A514-BE72 | Luciana Pereira de BritoN/

Human case of West Nile neuroinvasive disease in Portugal, summer 2015

A case of West Nile virus (WNV) infection was reported in the Algarve region, Portugal, in the first week of September 2015. WNV is known to circulate in Portugal, with occasional reports in horses and birds (2004 to 2011) and very sporadically human cases (in 2004 and in 2010). Here we present the clinical and laboratory aspects related to the first human case of West Nile neuroinvasive disease reported in Portugal