Deployable structures inspired by the origami art

My thesis is an exploration of design methods and tools using origami as a vehicle to test their usefulness and coming to terms with their limitations. I have taken my fascination with a particular development in origami and put my belief in its potential for architectural application to the test by way of various investigations: materials and structural analysis, mathematical reasoning, manipulating space and form, parametric modeling, fabrication, and finite element testing. Parting from conventional, figural forms, mathematicians developed open-surface forms together with theorems that governed the ability of these folded forms to fold flat. I selected a particular form, the Kao-fold, for its simplicity, beauty, and structural properties and imagined many exciting possibilities, specifically for its application in designing a deployable structure. I analyzed its crease pattern, exploring variations and their corresponding folded forms. Simultaneously, different material ideas for larger-scale structures were tested and a particular configuration was assessed for internal stresses and its structural stability. Its transformation from a flat sheet to a folded state was scrutinized under the lens of mathematical reasoning, namely trigonometry, by linking the acute angle of its crease pattern and the dihedral angle in its folded state to its final folded configuration. The rigidity of this investigation was offset by the freedom afforded in manipulating paper models. As such, different spatial qualities and forms were explored while addressing the issue of scale and potential applications.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Giesecke, Ken, 1976-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• John Ochsendorf and Carol Burns.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/30075

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/30075