When 24,000 standing seam, Zinc tiles were needed to cover the innovative sculptural form of architect Zaha Hadid’s, 2009, Glasgow Museum of Transport building in Scotland, Varla UK (specialist zinc and copper cladding producers) were faced with an interesting set of problems. Every tile had to be individually crafted, to create, a durable, waterproof and perfect fit to the sculptural outline of the building’s skin contours. (SEE WEBSITES BACKGROUND IMAGE) Showing array of finished tiles, flattened and dimensioned, also prepared for lazer cutting patterns.
Rhinos new Paneling Tools: Making the job of getting the tiles from 3D model into reality simple. Tile sizes were driven by criteria added into the plugin Paneling Tools, and dealt with it by using a 3D point grid system. The staggered tile design, specified by Hadid, could be easily drawn between the 200mm pattern points along the Iso-lines of the building’s form.
Rhino’s ability to create tiling from stringent design criteria is amazing in itself, especially as there are over 24,000 individually shaped tiles. Cutting tools have been devised which flatten the tiles, space them out in order and then put them in place to create a dimensioned drawing for each tile.
"The Transport Museum building would be a tunnel-like shed, which is open at opposite ends to the city and the Clyde. In doing so it becomes porous to its context on either side. However, the connection from one to the other is where the building diverts to create a journey away from the external context into the world of the exhibits. Here the interior path becomes a mediator between the city and the river which can either be hermetic or porous depending on the exhibition layout. Thus the museum positions itself symbolically and functionally as open and fluid with its engagement of context and content."
http://www.glasgowarchitecture.co.uk/museum_of_transport_glasgow.php
The Steel frame-work looks more like a Roller Coaster, "the most complex steel work we've and possible will ever work on." Varla.
About Conference Shape to Fabrication 3:
First Speaker Jonathan Sheridan "Shape to Fabrication 3, Rhino for Architecture" London Metroplitan University
Rhino Panelling Tools - Automation.
Glasgow Museum of Transport
Jonathan Sheridan - Designpartners
Industry leaders from Architecture, Landscaping, Urban Planning & Engineering presented and shared projects from around the world highlighting issues of design, use of technology and methodology from concept forms & shapes, through to complex engineering analysis and final manufacturing.
Image above used in presentations at the conference, showing final 3D production drawing for Zahas organic geometry. A job completed under contract for 'Varla' zinc panel master craftsmen, who cladded the roof on site in sunny Glasgow from the drawings produced by Jonathan using Rhino, Paneling tools and Rhinoscript.
Narrowing the links between complex and challenging architectural form and fabrication was a strong emphasis of each presentation. "Direct to Fabrication" was a common theme.
The latest developments in Rhino modelling technology, were highlighted with a look ahead to Rhino 5.0; plus updates on Grasshopper the graphical algorithm editor for Rhino 4.0, the terrain modeling and analysis solution RhinoTerrain and more.
Manufacturing and technology automation is coming ever closer to us....
