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freeform surface and digital fabrication

Frei Otto was one of the pionee- ring architects of the 20th century, often recognized for his innovative form-finding approach towards the design of tensile structures. We star- ted this project by replicating and documenting some experiments of the architect Frei Otto, with the goal of reproducing the results in Rhino Grasshopper using the Kangaroo plug-in. As a dynamic medium, soap film uses a rationed mixture of soap, glycerin, sugar and water, thus pro- ducing a state where both the com- pressive and tensile properties of the solution appear to be balanced. The resulting “minimal” surfaces would exhibit equal tensile forces running in all directions, presenting optimal structural solutions for a gi- ven boundary configuration. These minimal surfaces in soap film, can be a guide for another material me- dium at a different scale.

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