Quantifying the influence of continuous and discrete design decisions using sensitivities — Early-stage design decisions have a large impact on the performance of buildings. Especially the case of mixed (continuous and discrete) design variables can complicate human and computer understandings of how individual choices contribute to performance,
The Chair Laboratory: A case study on structural reuse — “As consumers, we practice reuse in everyday life, often as a means of wasting less. When it comes to buildings, the environmental and economic stakes are much higher, and yet reuse is rare at the
Strategies to reduce embodied carbon in early-stage structural design — While many strategies have been identified and proposed for reducing embodied carbon in early-stage structural design, they are rarely synthesized to discuss their relative effectiveness and compatibility. Discussing the strategies together rather than individually is
Sustainability of joinery in modern timber construction — What quantifiable benefits might be associated with switching from metallic fastener connections to all-timber joinery connections in modern timber construction? Related publications: Fang, Demi L., and Caitlin Mueller. 2021. “Mortise-and-tenon joinery for modern timber construction:
Flow-informed topology design — An alternate geometric method to facilitate designing with “force flow”. Principles and precedents in efficient structural design demonstrate the advantage of designing topologies that align well with an underlying vector field, such as principal stress
Variations on a quadratic function: dimensionality reduction — Tasked with producing a design space of mathematical functions that are smooth, differentiable, and concave down on the x-y domain, a 9-dimensional variable space of transformations on a paraboloid is constructed. A sample is produced
Mechanical behavior of timber joinery — Conventional connections for timber structural systems typically use metallic fasteners rather than all-timber interlocking joinery connections as seen in historic timber construction. What is the potential to re-apply joinery to modern timber construction, given modern
Pluma — With a design framework applicable to any site in the world, the Pluma installation envisions a lightweight future where structures generate more energy than they embody. Earned honorable mention at the IASS 2020 Design Competition.
The Conversation Bench — On the design team at SOM Chicago for the design of a seat fabricated with one sweep of a robotic arm. Demonstration of no-waste manufacture of formwork for the Stereoform Slab. Fabricated by Bridgewater Studio
Timber-concrete composite floor systems — Vibration analysis models for the timber-concrete composite floor system. More information on the system available at here and at the SOM Timber Tower Research Project. Image by SOM.
Parametric model of bracing and node geometry — This mid-rise office building features SOM’s signature high-waisted brace for its lateral system, with its center node lifted vertically to achieve efficiency in load path. This project features an additional geometric feature: the center nodes
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