Starre Faltungen als Leichtbauprinzip im Bauwesen

Rigid Folded Plate Construction as a Principle for Lightweight Buildings.

The term "Rigid Folded Plate Construction" refers to conventional folded plate structures made of concrete as well as to applications of the morphological principle of folding as they are represented by thin-walled-structures like Geodesic Domes. Their facetted triangular elements on one hand form the geometrical basic elements of a regularly, mathematically defined body and on the other hand the structural components of a lightweight construction system.
Based on modern computer methods irregular free-form-surfaces can also be generated independently from mathematical-functional descriptions. These surfaces may be provided with different folding patterns, depending on the design or the requirements due to the façade engineering or static behavior. Those folded structures can be geometrically described down to the individual element and detailed out in different materials. This way rigid folded plate construction represents a principle of lightweight construction for free form facades and structures opening new and still unexplored structural dimensions.