Digital design of deployable scissor grids based on circle packing

Deployable scissor structures can undergo rapid and easy transformations between different states, making them fit for a broad range of architectural applications. The complexity of their design process nevertheless forms an obstacle in the realisation of these structures. This paper presents a method to design several types of double-layer scissor grids through circle packing and the digital design tools that we’ve created for this purpose. As such, the design of these different scissor grid types is reduced to the geometric exercise of finding a suitable circle packing. It opens up a myriad of different possibilities, which can be explored and compared in a quick, interactive and intuitive manner using the digital design tools.

Publication year:2015

Keywords:Deployable scissor grid, transformable structures, circle packing, geometric design, kinematics, parametric design, digital design tools, Grasshopper, Kangaroo

Accessibility:Closed