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Structural Folding
2014 - 2016

Following an ongoing research of the Chair of Structural Design at ETH Zurich on the definition of a design method to integrate structural folding in architecture, a two-phase collaboration between Arup Amsterdam and ETH Zurich has been focused on the development of a parametric toolkit as a digital implementation of the aforementioned design method. Thanks to the parametric toolkit, the designer is able to generate digitally folded-plate geometries and evaluate the inner forces within them under generic external loading conditions. The toolkit is grounded on the Theory of Plasticity and relies on three-dimensional Graphic Statics. The aim is to provide engineers and architects with information on the realistic application of structural folding to design while allowing them to take full advantage of the direct relationship between the spatial and structural potentials of folding.


Research Team:
Pierluigi D′Acunto, Juan José Castellón (ETH Zurich)
Shibo Ren, Sean McGinn (Arup)

Related Publications:
Pierluigi D'Acunto, Juan José Castellón, Alessandro Tellini, Shibo Ren: foldKITE. An Ultra-Lightweight Folded Structure, Proceedings of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS) Symposium - Future Visions, Amsterdam, 2015.
Pierluigi D'Acunto, Juanjo Castellon. Folding Augmented. A Design Method for Structural Folding in Architecture, in: Origami 6: The Sixth International Meeting of Origami in Science, Mathematics, and Education, Koryo Miura, Toshikazu Kawasaki, Tomohiro Tachi, Ryuhei Uehara, Robert Lang, Patsy Wang-Iverson (eds.), 2015.

last modified 23.9.2019