For Cal Poly's Design Village 2009 competition Tam Tran, Karen Wang, and I entered a small, portable structure. The theme of the competition, Post-Apocalyse, warranted an alien-form, responding to natural laws and forces. The structure is driven by Fibonacci's sequence, a natural sequence that determines growth. The section of the skeleton responds to the harsh winds of the canyon by using Bernoulli's principle.
Since footings and foundations are not allowed Bernoulli's principle is reversed to keep the light structure on the ground. The weatherproofing fabric, Tyvek, hangs off of the exoskeleton as the alien skin. The entire structure was prefabricated, carried by three people miles to the site, weighed less than 30 pounds, and set up in less than half an hour. Parametric modeling was used for design and fabrication.
Team: Scott Leinweber, Tam Tran, Karen Wang
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