Friday, April 9, 2010

Initiation Drink Ideas

giant grass for small architectures

pensieri sul costruire in bambù in Italia



Ha senso, in un’epoca che mette a disposizione tecnologie sempre più sofisticati, usare materiali vegetali come risorsa per fare architettura? Quali sono le risorse disponibili? Come possono essere affiancati materiali naturali differenti per generare sistemi costruttivi più articolati?

Queste sono alcune delle domande alla base di uno studio che AkØ ha avviato in collaborazione con l’Associazione Italiana Bambù (AIB). In attesa di pubblicare i risultati delle prime indagini svolte sul materiale proveniente da una coltivazione di bambù in Toscana, anticipiamo alcuni reasoning on the assumption of general use and also at our latitudes auction giant fibers from this herb in the construction of architectural structures.


The task of deal with the construction of dwellings and common areas for humanity growing can not actually apart from plant materials. The bamboo in this respect is particularly qualified for its quality of botanical regenerate very quickly compared to other materials such as for example wood.
The irregularity of the material - one of the deterrents for the official use of natural materials into industrial reality - in fact it is easily manageable. To some extent reflects the complexity of any construction process must address not only the technical but also social, economic and cultural. The approach to this complexity is being facilitated by new forms of employment relationship, more reticular and less pyramidal and partly by the use of digital technologies for the management of the available information and their conversion into spatial configurations.

On bamboo buildings, the people of the areas concerned have developed over the years a wide variety of applications and solutions in detail. Today it is possible to exchange this knowledge spread and adaptation to specific conditions. This is a prerequisite for high-tech architecture made of natural material. Many of the experiments related to these issues may already be started on a small scale without major capital investment.

local bamboo resource?
in Nature, il bambù è presente prevalentemente nella fascia tropicale dell’Africa, dell’America Latina e del Sud-Est asiatico, includendo quasi tutte le isole del Giappone. In Europa non è nativo ma molte zone del continente, compresa quasi tutta la penisola italiana, risultano adatte alla crescita di specifiche specie di bambù. Infatti, l’habitat adatto per il bambù comprende tutta la fascia tra i 46° N ed i 46° S ed alcune specie prosperano fino a 4.000m di altitudine.




The cultivation of bamboo in Europe raises some questions not yet clarified, including:
- the mechanical properties and biological materials derived from specific agricultural and climatic conditions in which or natural growth would be similar if grown in other contexts?
- ecological implications which may arise from such a cultivation in other contexts?

While asking these questions for more research, even today in Italy there are a enough crops to justify the use of bamboo in architecture.


Bamboo has excellent mechanical properties. Above all-wheel drive, its strength is comparable to many metals, which is why even some talk of "steel plant". Weight for weight, it provides higher performance to conventional materials. The material can be used in the form of whole cane (especially of small diameter) end pipes made from the largest for cutting or dividing, but have been tested also uses of elements of different shapes including pieces cut short, then joined up to the individual fibers to use as a matrix for composite materials.


The more widespread use of bamboo in architecture is done using straight bars, usually within the trusses. The structural strength is assigned to the properties of individual rods, requiring cane suitable diameters (> 8 cm) and a special care of the nodes. The species of bamboo available in Italy hardly reach a size suitable for such use.


bending tests on whole auction items and split

Investigations initiated suggested use in the form of a curved rod in order to exploit the elastic properties of the material. Deflected the bamboo is tantamount to producing a pre-tension, which improves the static behavior. This gave the combined use of structural types resistant form, such as shells or domes, also allow the use of material of small diameter (1.5 to 5 cm). Auctions plant of this size are easily found in Italy.

the AIB bambuseto di Camaiore Viareggio at

Technically, a lattice shell is a combination structural elements in which relatively little resistant are joined together with a large number of nodes forming a combined surface with double curvature. This surface is able to wrap a space and has a very efficient structural behavior. Even large areas can be covered with thin walls. Generally, these shells are made of continuous rods (or spliced) arranged in two rows folded to form a square grid. In thin shells, the final form is imposed by the behavior of the material rather than by deliberate design move.



installation at MoMA, New York - nArchitects, 2004

At the small scale of these structures can be easily explored and constructed without mechanically sophisticated. The coverage of the SHELLter prototype, made of river cane (Arundo donax) is a good example.


There seem to be from these considerations, the most interesting lines of inquiry:

- geometric , ie sull’esplorazione di superfici curve generate a partire dal comportamento flessionale del materiale.
- edilizia , ossia sullo studio di sistemi costruttivi compositi in cui aste vegetali fanno da supporto per altri strati in grado di fornire prestazioni termiche, igrometriche e figurative adeguate.

Speriamo di poter fornire presto nuove informazioni sull’avanzamento dello studio.

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