Elytra Filament Pavilion | Achim Menges + John Madejski

Architecture, Cultural Buildings, Exhibition Hall, Museum & Exhibition hall

If biomimicry is at its core in the 21^st century architecture, we are at a crossroads where computation can play a major role in parametric structural design. V&A is releasing their first engineering season with a biomimetic, digital fabricated pavilion (the Elytra Filament Pavilion), titled with Engineering the World: Ove Arup and the Philosophy of Total Design.

Ove Arup was one of the 20th century pinoeers, his multidisciplinary approach to design defined ways for engineering to be understood and practiced today. This exhibition will focus on the design philosophy of Ove Arup, revealing his ideas of total humanistic architecture.

Courtesy of ICD/ITKE university of stuttgart

Victoria and Albert Museum is where the installation will be shown, brought to life by architects Achim Menges and Moritz Dörstelmann with the help of structural engineer Jan Knippers and climate engineer Thomas Auer.

The Pavilion will grow over the course of the V&A Engineering Season in response to data on structural behaviour and patterns of inhabitation of the Garden that will be captured by real-time sensors in its canopy fibres. At select moments, visitors will have the opportunity to witness the Pavilion’s construction live throughout the Season as new cells are fabricated in-situ by a Kuka robot. – V&A stated

Influenced by a biological structural system, the pavilion indicates exploring new solutions for robotic, biomimetic and parametric architecture.

Courtesy of ICD/ITKE university of stuttgart

Elytra Filament Pavilion will explore the impact of emerging robotic technologies on architectural design, engineering and making. Inspired by a lightweight construction principle found in nature, the fibrous structures of the forewing shells of flying beetles known as elytra, the Pavilion will be an undulating canopy of tightly-woven carbon fibre cells created using a novel robotic production process. – V&A

Both Menges’ and Knippers’ of Stuttgart University completed several researches in digital fabrication, robotic architecture and biomimetic integration in architecture.