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Integrating Form, Structure and Acoustics: A Computational Reinterpretation of Frei Otto’s Design Method and Vision

Pugnale, Alberto

March 2018 | Article

In several of Frei Otto’s early membrane structures, acoustics was a rather relevant design aspect that could not be controlled through classical form-finding approaches based on physical models. Moreover, it is possible to add that, geometrically speaking, Frei Otto’s membranes could naturally perform acoustically, because of their anticlastic shape and...

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Dante Bini’s Form-Resistant Binishells

Pugnale, Alberto & Bologna, Alberto

November 2017 | Article

This paper aims to review Dante Bini’s career, as well as his form-resistant Binishell and other pneumatic construction systems. The role of Mario Salvadori in Bini’s international success works as the introduction to a broader discussion about the relationship between innovation in design and innovation in construction for shell and...

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Pier Luigi Nervi and Australia: Outback Modernism

Pugnale, Alberto

November 2017 | Article

Exhibition and catalogue review, Architecture Australia (summary on hardcopy, full review online). The cultural legacy of Pier Luigi Nervi, one of Italy’s most influential modern architect-engineers, was the subject of the Pier Luigi Nervi and Australia: Outback Modernism Exhibition (6–16 June 2017). Held at the Harry Seidler-designed QV1 Building in...

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The Airshell prototype: a timber gridshell erected through a pneumatic formwork

Liuti, Alessandro, Pugnale, Alberto & Colabella, Sofia

September 2017 | Conference Paper

This paper presents the construction of Airshell, a small timber gridshell prototype erected by employing a pneumatic formwork. Inspired by the work of Frei Otto and Dante Bini, the technique is based on a pneumatic membrane and an Arduino® board – the former used as dynamic formwork and the latter...

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Building timber gridshells with air: Numerical simulations and technique challenges

Liuti, Alessandro, D’Amico, Bernardino & Pugnale, Alberto

July 2016 | Conference Paper

Construction has always been a fascinating and challenging aspect of timber gridshells. So far, only three techniques have successfully been used for the erection of such structures: the so-called ‘lift-up’, ‘push-up’ and ‘ease-down’ (Quinn et al. 2015). Inflatable Membrane Technology is here proposed as a new solution and is tested...

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Parametrico (Parametric)

Pugnale, Alberto

January 2016 | Chapter

In book: La bellezza per il rospo (Beauty according to the toad) (pp.221-222), Publisher: CLEAN Edizioni, Editors: Roberta Amirante, Carmine Piscopo, Paola Scala. Born in the world of mathematics to define all those “equations that express a set of quantities as explicit functions of a number of independent variables, known...

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Erection of post-formed gridshells by means of inflatable membrane technology

Liuti, Alessandro & Pugnale, Alberto

December 2015 | Conference Paper

This paper describes a new erection technique for post-formed timber gridshells which takes advantage of inflatable membrane technology. Consolidated construction techniques for timber gridshells are based either on “pull-up” / “push-up” (i.e. Mannheim Multihalle) or “ease-down” behavior (i.e. Downland Open Air Museum). However, these techniques show shortcomings already at small...

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Dante Bini’s “New Architectural Formulae”: Construction, Collapse and Demolition of Binishells in Australia 1974-2015

Pugnale, Alberto & Bologna, Alberto

July 2015 | Conference Paper

The Italian architect Dante Bini began his studies on shell structures during the 1960s. He developed and refined a form-finding and construction technique to erect a finished large-span reinforced concrete (RC) shell structure through the use of an inflatable membrane. This system was patented in 1964 under the name ‘Binishell’...

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

D’Amico, Bernardino, Kermani, Abdy, Zhang, Hexin, Pugnale, Alberto & Colabella, Sofia

June 2015 | Article

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...

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