Ceramic additive manufacturing in architecture: computational methodology for defining a column system

Abstract

The present paper describes a research that explores the design and production of customised architectural ceramic components defined through parametric relations of biomorphic inspiration and to be built through additive manufacturing. In this sense, is presented a case study that develops a system of both architectural and structural components - a column system. The definition process of the system is mediated by computational design, implementing not only structural analysis and optimization strategies, but also mimetic formal characteristics of nature to an initial grid, creating a model that adapts its formal attributes, depending on its assumptions and the material constraints. This process resulted in the definition of a set of solutions that better answer to a specific design problem.