Lecture @Akron Art Museum

This Thursday, November 17th,  I will be giving a lecture at the Akron Art Museum as part of the Synapse Lecture Series. Stop by if you are in the area.

The Synapse series explores enlightened collaborations between art and science. This initiative at The University of Akron probes the ideas, images, and mutual interests connecting art and science professionals and disciplines. The Synapse series is funded through the generous support of the Knight Foundation.

For more information visit: https://akronartmuseum.org/calendar/synapse-lecture-simon-schleicher/10869

picture credit: Akron Art Museum

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Presentation @ACADIA2016

On Thursday, October 27th I will present my joint research with Riccardo La Magna on “Bending-acitve Plates: Form-finding and Form-conversion” during this year’s ACADIA conference at the Taubman College at the University of Michigan. The full paper can be found here:

http://papers.cumincad.org/data/works/att/acadia16_260.pdf 

Lecture at SEMM Seminar

This Monday, I will present my work on “Bio-inspired Flexible Structures” at UC Berkeley’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE). Stop by if you are in the area. 

Monday, September 26, 12-1pm, 502 Davis Hall

For more information:

http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/cee.html?view=summary&timeframe=day&date=2016-09-26&filter=Secondary%20Event%20Type&filtersel=

Paper at AAG2016

Riccardo La Magna, Simon Schleicher, and Jan Knippers just presented their recent research on “Bending-active Plates: Form and Structure” during the AAG2016 conference at ETH Zurich. Link: goo.gl/SxOQny

Berkeley Weave

Doctoral Thesis Online

Friends,

My doctoral thesis on Bio-inspired Compliant Mechanisms for Architectural Design is finally online. I want to particularly thank all those who have made my adventurous path possible and continue to support me!

Schleicher, S. (2015). Bio-inspired compliant mechanisms for architectural design: transferring bending and folding principles of plant leaves to flexible kinetic structures.

Order Bound Edition: http://goo.gl/NXo7Wo

Open Access URL: http://goo.gl/Pt9q3O

Bio-inspired Compliant Mechanisms for Architectural Design

 

Plywood Installations at Berkeley Circus 2016

Riccardo La Magna and I show our latest plywood installations at the Berkeley Circus 2016.

With our research on bending-active structures, we investigate curved beams and surfaces shaped not by plastically deforming initially planar elements, as is done in traditional manufacturing, but by elastic deformation. In the resulting lightweight structures, bending is not avoided but instrumentalized to create complex curved geometries on the basis of standard, semi-finished building products.

More information about these projects is coming up…

Photo: Simon Schleicher

Photo: Simon Schleicher

Photo: Simon Schleicher

 

 

Plywood Installations at Berkeley Circus 2016

My students and I are getting ready for the Berkeley Circus 2016 with great plywood installations by Riccardo La Magna and me.

image: Simon Schleicher

image: Simon Schleicher

image: Simon Schleicher

image: Kyle Steinfeld

 

Form-finding and Design Potentials of Bending-active Plate Structures

Find here a link to my recent publication on “Form-finding and Design Potentials of Bending-active Plate Structures”. This work was featured at the Design Modelling Symposium 2015 in Copenhagen

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289707025_Form-finding_and_Design_Potentials_of_Bending-active_Plate_Structures 

Project Videos: Out of Plane Exhibition

Compilation of videos featured at the “Out of Plane: Designing Flexible Structures” Exhibition at UC Berkeley, College of Environmental Design, Department of Architecture.

Out of Plane: Designing Flexible Structures from Simon Schleicher on Vimeo.

Arch Exhibition – Out of Plane: Designing Flexible Structures

​​arch exhibition

Out of Plane 
Designing flexible structures

Nov. 2-25, 10am-5pm

108 Wurster Hall

This collaborative exhibition, Out of Plane: Designing flexible structures,  presents simulations, sketch models, and large-scale demonstrators of novel architectural forms and structures made possible through the creative exploration of bending and folding principles. It showcases the work of Asst. Prof. Simon Schleicher and students from the ITKE at the University of Stuttgart and UC Berkeley’s Department of Architecture. With modern computational design tools and innovative elastic materials available to architects today, deployable flexible structures are ever more possible. The exhibit takes on an integrative approach of physical form-finding and computer aided structural design: adopting mechanisms long avoided by engineers, such as the bending and buckling of thin plates as well as harnessing the idea of cross-connecting multiple layers, which taken by themselves may be too soft, but in their combination allow the construction of complex, lightweight, and strong structures. Highlighting an additional advantage to this research direction as it scales up in application: these structures were generated from simple planar parts, fabricated using conventional flatbed processes, and assembled without the necessity for skilled labor. The challenge at hand is in the design stage as it is difficult to anticipate the deformation from two-dimensional to curved geometries. The work presented here explores that challenge deeper and illustrates the elegant structural possibilities made possible through this innovative approach.

This exhibition is supported by: CARA – California Research Alliance by BASF, SOFiSTiK AG, UC Berkeley Department of Architecture, University of Stuttgart Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE)

The Out of Plane opening reception will be held on Monday, November 9 from 6-8pm.

arch.ced.berkeley.edu
510.642.4942

Department of Architecture

College of Environmental Design
University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, CA 94720–1820