Making Blobs with a Textile Mould Arno C.D.Pronk!and Rogier Houtman2 1 Department of Architecture,Building and Planning Technical University of Eindhoven P.O.box 513,NL-5600 MB Eindhoven,NL a.d.c.pronk@bwk.tue.nl http://www.blob.tue.nl 2 Department of Civil Engineering Laboratory of Building Engineering Delft University of Technology P.O.box 5048,NL-2600 GA Delft NL Tentech Design Engineering P.O.box 619,NL-2600 AP Delft NL rogier@tentech.nl http:/www.tentech.nl Summary.In the last decade compler buildings i.e.with unregular curved surfaces have been designed..The subject of this paper is the construction of those compler buildings.One of the main characteristics of a membrane structure is its geometrical complerity,which can be seen in multiple curved surfaces and complicated connection elements.Modern sophisticated computer technologies can be used to produce easily these compler three-dimensional shapes out of flat strips of fabric.Due to a lack of suitable production methods the erpression of the natural stress flow in supporting and connecting (rigid)structural elements is difficult.This paper assumes that it is possible to achieve the architectural desired free forms by manipulation of structural membranes.To prove that it is possible to achieve the architectural desired free forms different cases are described in which this technique is used.The first case describes the design of an indoor Ski run.The second and third case describes the building of a lightweight stage covering and an art pavilion.In all the three cases physical models have been used in the design phase.The structural design of the membrane mould has been engineered with the program easy.The rigidized structures have been analyzed using different FEM programs for each case.The transformation of a form- active structure (membrane)into a surface-active structure has been researched to make domes ore dome-like structures. Key words:Blobs,textile mould,free geometry architecture,tensile structures, pneumatic structures,formfinding,structural optimisation 305 E.Onate and B.Kroplin (eds.).Textile Composites and Inflatable Structures,305-322. 2005 Springer.Printed in the Netherlands.Making Blobs with a Textile Mould Arno C.D. Pronk1 and Rogier Houtman2 1 Department of Architecture, Building and Planning Technical University of Eindhoven P.O. box 513, NL-5600 MB Eindhoven, NL a.d.c.pronk@bwk.tue.nl http://www.blob.tue.nl 2 Department of Civil Engineering Laboratory of Building Engineering Delft University of Technology P.O. box 5048, NL-2600 GA Delft NL Tentech Design & Engineering P.O. box 619, NL-2600 AP Delft NL rogier@tentech.nl http:/www.tentech.nl Summary. In the last decade complex buildings i.e. with unregular curved surfaces have been designed. . The subject of this paper is the construction of those complex buildings. One of the main characteristics of a membrane structure is its geometrical complexity, which can be seen in multiple curved surfaces and complicated connection elements. Modern sophisticated computer technologies can be used to produce easily these complex three-dimensional shapes out of flat strips of fabric. Due to a lack of suitable production methods the expression of the natural stress flow in supporting and connecting (rigid) structural elements is difficult. This paper assumes that it is possible to achieve the architectural desired free forms by manipulation of structural membranes. To prove that it is possible to achieve the architectural desired free forms different cases are described in which this technique is used. The first case describes the design of an indoor Ski run. The second and third case describes the building of a lightweight stage covering and an art pavilion. In all the three cases physical models have been used in the design phase. The structural design of the membrane mould has been engineered with the program easy. The rigidized structures have been analyzed using different FEM programs for each case. The transformation of a form￾active structure (membrane) into a surface-active structure has been researched to make domes ore dome-like structures. Key words: Blobs, textile mould, free geometry architecture, tensile structures, pneumatic structures, formfinding, structural optimisation 305 E. Oñate and B. Kröplin (eds.), Textile Composites and Inflatable Structures, 305–322. © 2005 Springer. Printed in the Netherlands