Hypar Pavilion
2018
Design Team: Ting Cao, Pierluigi D′Acunto, J. Castellon, Alessandro Tellini
Fabrication Team: Southeast University Nanjing
Hypar Pavilion is a lightweight aluminium grid shell made of a combination of hyperbolic paraboloid (hypar) modules. The pavilion is an application of the smooth polyhypar surface, a structure-informed freeform surfaces based on hypars. In the design of the Hypar Pavilion, the double curvature of the individual hypars and the smooth connection between each other ensure a bending-free structural behaviour. In order to adjust and improve the structural performance of the pavilion, graphic static has been employed to evaluate and control the internal forces in the grid shell. As a temporary installation, the Hypar Pavilion has been fabricated using lightweight materials, such as aluminium rods and steel cables, and using low-tech manufacturing technologies. The entire grid shell has been manually built out of forty individual hypars, which have been combined following a specific sequence to ensure the kinematic stability of the ongoing assembly without the use of any scaffoldings. As a prototype, the Hypar Pavilion proved the applicability of smooth polyhypar surface structures in a specific design scenario, and the well-organized fabrication process exemplified the possibility to assemble complex freeform shells using simple construction technologies.
last modified 3.10.2021