Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has installed a leafed structured for Milan Design Week-this special tessellation is derived from a Greek word 'flora' showing that has no differentiation between stem and leaf. Milan Design Week kicked off yesterday and will be held between 4-9 April, 2017 in Milan with celebrated designers and architects. 

Zaha Hadid Architects’ Computational Design (ZHA CoDe) research group designed an experimental structure exploring form and pattern generated by advanced manufacturing and computational methods, as part of White in the City installations.

Named Thallus, exhibited at Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, the design was created by automated additive manufacture as well as hot-wire cutting technology, the structure presents the on-going investigations into robotic assisted design.

ZHA's installation demonstrates what can now be achieved in terms of mechanisation and customisation in the architecture, construction and engineering industries.

''Six-axis robotic 3D printing technology created the 7km extruded structural strip as a continuous line that repeatedly loops to connect with itself on a ruled surface,'' said ZHA.

''Ruled surfaces are a class of surfaces generated by the movement of a straight line in space around an axis, and have been applied in the fabrication process of the piece. Its shape is tailored to a trimmed cylinder that enables a hot-wire cutting process to create the mould of the base on which the continuous structural strip has been robotically 3D printed.''

Thallus continues ZHA CoDe's research into generating geometries through computation. The design explores differential growth methods through expansion and diffusion arising from a single continuous seed curve guided iteratively via simulation parameters while constrained to a reference surface. 

Density gradation and direction of growth have been defined by parameters such as proximity to boundaries, angled direction of rulings, as well as structural requirements.

The installation can be seen at Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan between 4-9 April, 2017.

Project facts

Design: Zaha Hadid Design, Patrik Schumacher
Project Management: Maha Kutay, Woody Yao, Manon Janssens
Design Team: ZHA Code: Shajay Bhooshan, Henry David Louth, Marko Margeta
Primary Sponsor: OIKOS
Contributors:
Ai Build - Robotic Additive Manufacturing
Odico Formwork Robotics - Robotic Formworks
Armadillo Engineering - Metal works

All images © Luke Hayes

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