Type of Document	Master's Thesis
Author	Al-Haddad, Tristan Farris
Author's Email Address	ta67@mail.gatech.edu
URN	etd-07102006-111810
Title	PerFORMance: Integrating Structural Feedback into Design Processes for Complex Surface-Active Form
Degree	Master of Science
Department	Architecture
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Russell Gentry Committee Chair Athanassios Economou Committee Member Chuck Eastman Committee Member
Keywords	feedback finite element analysis structure architecture computation folding structural ornament structural surface FEA surface
Date of Defense	2006-07-10
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract The ultimate goal of this research is to develop a method, from the designer’s point of view, for using the embodied specialized knowledge of Finite Element Analysis [FEA] software to study the behavior of materials, geometries, and configurations in order to create an iterative design feedback loop that uses structural performance as a primary evaluation criteria and point of departure for generating and refining complex formo-techtonic configurations while ensuring constructability, improved structural performance, and syntactic consistency. Syntactic consistency meaning that there would not be a loss in translation from concept to construct. Instead of the 2-dimensional [planar] manual technology which drove modernist analysis towards the structural hyper-rationality of the trabeated system, this new process should compile and synthesize computational speed, mathematic principles, mechanical knowledge, and material logics within a digital 3-dimensional [spatial] analytical environment in order to realize a new paradigm of constructible spatialized sensuality. The research will focus on the development of interoperability techniques and protocols between advanced parametric CAD systems and advanced structural analysis systems towards the creation of a fluid design + analysis process of creating and engineering complex forms and dynamic systems. Rapid prototyping will be integrated as a secondary feedback and verification loop, and as a precursor to the production of full scale construction machine readable files. In other words, the research focuses on the development of intricately designed, geometrically complex, and materially sophisticated structural skins that can be produced through advanced CAD/CAM techniques.
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