FIRST MEETING 17.05.2016 at 9.30, room 10.23, ICD

Granular materials are defined as large numbers of elements lying in loose frictional contact. Well-known examples of granular materials are sand, gravel or snow. In most cases the individual particles in these materials are found, i.e. their geometric characteristics are given. However the particle can also be designed, which means that its geometry can be defined. Through altering the particle geometry the material characteristics of the overall granular material can be calibrated.
These designed granular materials are not only by default both re-cyclable and re-configurable construction materials due to the fact that they remain unbound at all times. They are also a form of designer matter in which the behaviour of a material itself is created by the designer rather than taken as a given entity.

The ITECH Aggregate Vault Workshop 2016 will develop design and construction models for dome structures made from designed granular materials. These are prototypes for the ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2017. Participants of the workshop thus have the opportunity to continue the research either within the course of their Master Thesis studies or as research assistants upon agreement with the tutors.

Using an already existing designed granular material of thirty cubic metres in total, we will test various types of full-scale vault construction and develop simulation models for these construction methods. Scaled physical models will be used to develop design approaches for the ICD Aggregate Pavilion 2017.

Institute for Computational Design
Karola Dierichs, Professor Achim Menges