Discrete Voss surfaces: Designing geodesic gridshells with planar cladding panels

• Published in: Automation in construction Vol. 140; p. 104200
• Main Authors: Montagne, Nicolas, Douthe, Cyril, Tellier, Xavier, Fivet, Corentin, Baverel, Olivier
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.08.2022; Elsevier BV; Elsevier
• Subjects: Architectural geometry; Chebyshev net; Civil Engineering; Construction; Curved panels; Differential geometry; Engineering Sciences; Flat panels; Geodesic gridshell; Mechanical properties; Space exploration; Vector spaces; Voss surface; Geodesic gridshell; Space exploration; Voss surface; Chebyshev net; Architectural geometry; Voss surface Geodesic gridshell Architectural geometry Space exploration Chebyshev net
• ISSN: 0926-5805; 1872-7891
• DOI: 10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104200

The design and construction of doubly-curved structures often reveals to be challenging and can result in complex manufacturing and assembly. A recent strategy to tackle this difficulty consists in exploiting the connection between discrete differential geometry and constructive properties to identify curve networks with good fabrication or mechanical properties. Following this approach, a family of surfaces, called Voss surfaces, is here presented. Among other features, they can be built from flat panels, initially flat straight strips, and hinged connections. These properties arise from the existence of a conjugate network of geodesic curves. Two generation methods are presented to shape discrete Voss surfaces: the first allows their exploration through linear spaces; the second provides a unique solution by means of a direct computation. Applications of the generated shapes to architecture are presented. They illustrate the potential of discrete Voss surfaces for the design of doubly curved structures. •Voss nets allow to build geodesic shells covered with flat quadrangular panels.•Voss nets can be explored from a linear space computed form a Chebyshev net on S2.•Linear spaces of Voss nets are explored with eigenshapes or minimal influence modes.•Voss nets can be computed directly from to boundary curves.•Transformation, shape-fitting and constructive examples of Voss nets are presented.