Fabian Eidner

Abstract

While primarily admired for their material efficiency and aesthetic potentials, form-active fabric structures also offer original solutions to architectural design, modulating spaces with pliable and soft surface qualities. Their application, however, is hindered by the need for a profound understanding of the relationship between morphology, structure, and materialization. To comprehend and resolve these interdependencies, architects and engineers employ the means of form-finding. Existing form-finding methods for fabric structures exist either in purely digital or purely physical mediums. This paper introduces a cyber-physical form-finding method that seeks the equilibrium state of highly articulated fabric structures through sensorial modeling and emergent behavior of interacting forces. By embracing the softness and inherent responsiveness of elastic fabrics, this research presents an interactive form-finding approach for form-active material system where real-time shape adjustments are performed through hands-on manipulation. The developed design interface enables designers and user to swiftly explore numerous fabric morphologies in their equilibrium, suggesting intuitive tangible means of design communication.