Imagine a structure that is quick to assemble, easy to transport and offers shelter in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Now, imagine one that can assemble itself in mid-air. This is the vision of a group of students from the Masters of Architecture Options Studio at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In disaster scenarios such as earthquakes or tsunamis, humanitarian aid is often difficult to coordinate through rubble and debris, and constructing shelters is even more complicated. These problems could be remedied with the introduction of a structure dropped from a plane or helicopter that assembles itself during the fall to Earth. MIT's prototype, named 'Fast, Cheap and Out of the Box' is designed to tackle such scenarios.
MyDung Nguyen, a student involved in the project told WIRED that the main aim of their work was to "defy the constraints" that can often impede architectural projects, particularly in areas where space and time are limited.
The self-assembly relies on a folding 'figure 8' structure - a fiberglass hoop that can fold into two smaller rings. It's reminiscent of the pop-up tents you can buy for festivals. This design leaves a lot of potential energy available to help the structure expand upon release. Thanks to the fixed joint structure, the pop-up can automatically move back into its original form, too.
James Addison, a member of the project team, told WIRED there were "high levels of uncertainty...and a lot of complexities" involved with the application of geometry to the pop-up. Many of the principles involved hadn't been extensively researched, and therefore needed to be tested first-hand in order to find the right dynamics for the prototype.
At Autodesk’s BUILD Space in Boston, the students developed numerous prototypes, from centimeter-scale to meter-scale structures, tested by dropping them from various heights. The geometry used to build the fibreglass "spline" was designed through small wire models and then successively larger fibreglass models to ensure the ease of folding as well as the quick-release of the pop-up structure.
The parachutes were developed both digitally and through physical prototypes and were designed as the source of activation force to initiate the pop-up process, as well as being used to slow the descent to the ground. This was key in ensuring a safe landing and to make sure the pop-up could be used again. Theory was put to practice during the final round of testing - in which the pop-up was dropped from a 100ft crane on MIT’s Briggs field.
Early on in the crane testing, various obstacles were encountered in the form of the tangled rods, horizontal wind loading and other complications. This led to the team refining the pop-up structure with a simple release mechanism, a clean folding sequence and a minimal parachute. Read more: Grow your own hotel: this tropical high-rise in Singapore has its own ecosystem
Most architecture is permanent, but for the 'Fast, Cheap and Out of the Box' project, the potential for disassembly was just as important as the assembling of the structure. The fact the pop-up is reusable creates a host of possibilities in terms of the economics of architectural projects - a reusable shelter, for instance, would not only be able to help more people, but would also reduce the general costs of aid projects.
However, in the mean time, there are no current plans to develop the prototype further. When asked about the future of the project, Skylar Tibbits, co-teacher of the Self-Assembly Lab, said: "I think it's up in the air."
Project Team: Instructors: Skylar Tibbits, Neil Thomas, Aran Chadwick Design/Build Team: James Addison, Zachary Angles, Zain Karsan, MyDung Nguyen, and Danniely Staback
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
