Hospital Canopy

This project involves the design and fabrication of a 70x40m entrance canopy for a major hospital development in Australia. The canopy features a wavy soffit made from clip-on aluminum battens. Using parametric modeling, I developed the detailed design, producing fabrication files directly from the computational model.

Scope of Work

Produce the battens design, layout and assembly documentation to cut and prepare each length of aluminium extruded batten.

Produce the CNC drawings and 3D model along with assembly documentation for the supports. These are cut from aluminium sheets and folded at precise angles to provide support points for each batten.

Check for and automatically flag any clashes with the cladding and other systems. Provide support during fabrication and on-site assembly.

Remote Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) using C# and Grasshopper

Design

Starting with initial form finding, the script generates a wireframe model with lines representing the batten lengths.

This is driven by a variety of referenced geometry such as the boundaries, column placement, form-guiding curves and supports layout.

Proceeding with the model generation, detailed sections and fixture details are computed following the wireframe.

From the accurate and detailed model, data is extracted to package the entire system for production.

Manufacture

CNC drawings for cutting the pressed aluminium supports, along with mounting holes, tags and fold angles etched. Lengths and cut angles for each batten member in a sheet.

Assembly

Spreadsheets and drawings crucial to assembly, with references to tags for each batten and support.

Coordination to prevent clashes on a complex project, during active construction, amidst frequent design changes becomes slow and labor-intensive. Taking a computational approach allows such projects to be executed more efficiently, providing flexibility and faster results with less resources.

An irregular boundary and openings for sunlight, round columns and V-columns add complexity to the production, which is simplified through computational methods and DfMA principles.

3 carefully sculpted curves create waves across the batten lengths, shallow at the edges and deeper in the middle of the canopy. Each batten is cut and installed at unique angles for this effect.

Multiple spreadsheets exported directly from the Grasshopper3D script describe the cut angles for each batten on 4 discrete planes and the fold angles for each batten support.

Alternating fin and filler battens cover the soffit of the canopy, fastened with clips onto pressed aluminum supports.

All exported files are automatically grouped into folders for each continuous length to keep them organized.

2000+ CNC drawings for support aluminium pressings, each exported as an individual file for fabrication.

Out of 2584, 700+ batten models also exported as individual 3D step files for machine cutting compund angles.

This project and other similar projects were delivered by a team of 2 within a few months. Typically, such projects would require a team of 4-6 engineers and several more months, along with massive amounts of redundant work in revisions and coordination.