Spin-Valence

LOCATION
USA

MATERIALS
Plasma-cut steel and
translucent glass

Spin-Valence is a kirigami-based (cutting and folding) method of producing spatial structures from flat sheets of material. This method significantly decreases the time and effort required to assemble a space frame panel with structural rigidity. Initially designed in paper and then translated into digitally-cut steel, iterative prototyping was key to the development of this novel structural system. Presentations at the FABRICATE 2014 conference and the International Association of Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS) have garnered interest in the system and collaborations by top researchers in the field of deployable and spatial structures. I have collaborated with graduate students under the direction of Gordana Herning at MIT to do structural testing and advanced the geometric basis of the system. I’ve collaborated with engineers at Arup to assess the system through computational analysis. Most recently, Isabel Moreira de Oliveira, a PhD student under the supervision of Sigrid Adrieannsens at Princeton University, has taken the Spin-Valence system as the focus of her doctoral research. She will be expanding the system’s geometric definition and characterizing the structural capacity of various permutations of the system. We are actively collaborating on the work and applications and have a paper under review with the journal Thin-Walled Structures.

Tiling Patterns

THe basic geometric construction of square tiling Spin-Valence space frame.

Folding Process

This system has applications for self-supporting architectural facades, canopies, deployable shelters and bridges, drainable walkways and grates, rapidly produced automotive panels, and shippable structures such as those used in outer space applications.

Materials

Translucent glass panels suggest a full building enclosure system incorporating structure, enclosure, insulation, ventilation, aperture, and the play of patterned shadows on the vertical surface. This sculpture is installed on the grounds of Cranbrook Art Museum.

3D Prints

Form Making

VIEW ADDITIONAL WORK