Timber gridshells: Numerical simulation, design and construction of a full scale structure

Abstract

Timber gridshell structures, such as the Multihalle for the federal garden festival in Mannheim or the Downland Museum, have been the result of a creative-generative process that indissolubly 'welded' the structural contribution to that of form exploration. The challenging design and construction issues have been typically addressed and resolved in several inventive ways. However, still now, form-finding and erection of timber gridshells present many difficulties. In this regard, this paper aims to provide a series of novel steps to address some of the main design and construction issues that are associated with 'actively-bent' timber gridshell structures. First, the main characteristics of ..