Rationalization with ruled surfaces in architecture

This thesis addresses the problems of rationalizing and segmenting large scale 3D models, and how to handle difficult production constraints in this area. The design choices when constructing large scale architecture are influenced by the budget. Therefore I strive to minimize the amount of time and material needed for production. This makes advanced free form architecture viable for low cost projects, allowing the architects to realize their designs.

By pre-cutting building blocks using hot wire robots, the amount of milling necessary can be reduced drastically. I do this by rationalizing the intended shape as a piecewise ruled surface; the developed method was able to cut away up to 95% of the excess material. Methods were developed to minimize the number of blocks necessary to build advanced large scale 3D shapes. Using stochastic optimization to guide the segmentation, it was possible to remove up to 48% of the building blocks. Hot blade cutting for constructing models with positive Gauss curvature is an upcoming technology. Three segmentation algorithms were developed to solve construction constraints that arises when using this technique. One of the algorithms focusses on creating an aesthetic segmentation.