Malhas em projetos paramétricos com superfícies complexas: um repertório formativo para arquitetura

Abstract

The digital design process has evolved from representation technologies, technical documentation, simulation, performance assessments, to the parametric design approach, which has influenced and subsidized current architectural production. Antoni Gaudí and Frei Otto are considered the pioneers of this approach in their design processes, even though they used analog models. Both developed physical models capable of modifying shape based on the use of suspended meshes controlled by variable weights. For the current moment of digital processes in architecture, meshes have expanded their uses alongside parametrics, such as representation solutions, tessellation, analysis and process optimization, structural solutions and the possibility of simulating the performance of physical forces to generate curved and optimized geometries. However, the curriculum of architecture courses in Brazil still does not incorporate such knowledge in a systematic and disciplinary way, which makes its appropriation in the professional context difficult. It is understood that a geometric base is necessary to enable advancement to greater levels of complexity required to master parametric design. In this process, it is important to to deal with applications of geometry in architecture beyond aesthetic issues, understanding how a non-trivial form can present functional attributes that highlight the quality of a project for the current context. Therefore, based on a didactic theory, the aim is to explain the knowledge involved in the applications of meshes in contemporary architecture and to understand the geometric concepts that integrate their functional properties, stimulating their appropriation in architectural practice through parametric design. It starts with a bibliographical review on mesh applications in architecture, seeking to identify their functions and properties applied to the project and establishing the criteria for defining the body of research analysis, formed by reference projects. Based on the discourse of the architects of the works, an attempt is made to understand the design process, the concepts and associated techniques, based on the structured notion of knowledge, by Yves Chevallard. The corpus of analysis includes the works: Shellstar, with a surface defined by the action of physical forces of compression; Montreal Biosphere, the first surface architecture with the geodesic concept to excel in performance and environmental issues; Eden Project, with surface defined by a digital process that is equivalent to Frei Otto's analog soap bubble method; Water Cube, with a three-dimensional structure defined by a model of bubbles, but its facade configured by the Voronoi diagram, an irregular mesh with recurring patterns of nature. The approach that associates surface performance, formal and constructive structuring, analysis and essential requirements to the contemporary design process, integrated to the parametric design, allowed to identify the implicit geometric concepts and, more than that, to recognize and explain the interconnection between the projects. The result is an interdisciplinary approach and a more holistic view, through knowledge structures of reference projects for current architecture training.