Parametric Wood Fabrication | Mark Cabrinha

The parametric wood study focuses on a contemporary timber fabrication and long spanning structures. This structure relied on a grid shell in specific. The research team used three main parts as a tactic.  Form finding through physics plug-ins for computer aided design, parametrically defining the network like patterns, and then parametrically finding the multi layer lath offsets that would define the structures thickness, depth, and joints.

The team used grasshopper to define all the designs of the parametric grid shell. With grasshopper it could take seconds to modify a structure by switching the values and come up with a modified design.

The design team decided to demonstrate the capabilities of these techniques as a tool. An interactive environment that will show the range of the parameters of the grid shell became the main demonstration, along with physical models of grid shells whose cut files were laid out in a parametric form, and a number of renderings to illustrate the possibilities of such a design.