Tridon, is a project that was developed in the Physical Computing Seminar conducted in the second terms of the Master’s in Advanced Architecture Program 2017 – 2018.

Concept: this project investigates the performance of a responsive architectural roof that deforms in response to accumulation of people in specific spots of the interior space. The roof curves upwards to accumulate increased population at the designated spots while it comes back to its normal state with decrease in population at the same spots

Gear system: the project has 3 systems, each with  2 circular gears and 1 linear gear and 1 arched gear. Servo motor attached to 1 of the circular gears spins both the circular gears from 0 to 180 in a to and fro motion setting the linear gear to be pushed up and down. As a chain reaction of these motions, the arched gear is pushed up and down in a motion opposite to that of the linear gear. This motion of the arched gear is translated to deform the roofs in terms of varied accumulation. In reality in the working model, varied accumulation is duplicated in terms of values coming from 3 ultrasonic sensors.

Roofing structure:the roof is divided by triangulation. Each module is composed of 2 mirrored triangles. The exterior curves of these mirrored triangles are offset to create openings on the surface of these modules. Once the roof moves upwards these cuts on each of the modules opens up to ALLOW MORE LIGHT INTO the space with increasing population. In the physical model this achieved with the help of fiber rods and strings.

Exterior design. The envelope is designed with an abstract approach with a triangular representation to express the same language that the roof follows.

Tridon is a project of IaaC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia developed at Master in Advanced Architecture

Program: MAA01, Physical Computing

Students: Nusrat Tabassum, Deepak Shivdasan & Maya Mohan

Faculty: Angel Munoz & Cristian Rizzuti