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The development of adaptive building envelopes is receiving increasing interest in contemporary architecture, as it strives to cope with several requirements such as energy saving and harvesting (or mitigating environmental actions), improving performance and, finally, aesthetics. Actual implementation fundamentally concerns external ���skins��� (i.e. adaptive fa��ades), but internal ���skins��� (e.g. adaptive ceilings) may also be developed. The engineering aspects related to the above developments are quite complex and involve different behavioral models to be merged within the adaptive strategy. In the present paper, a study is presented that concerns the conception of an adaptive origami-like solar skin. The main design issues in managing the kinematics of the envelope are then identified and the envisaged solutions, to be developed in the next stage of the research, are discussed., Journal of Facade Design and Engineering, Vol. 5 No. 2 (2017): Special Issue ICBEST Istanbul

Here we demonstrate a general and modular approach to regulate the activity of target-responsive DNA-based nanoswitches. We do so by coupling together two DNA-based responsive elements: a triplex-forming clamp-like probe able to bind a specific DNA sequence and a split aptamer selected to bind a small molecule. In the presence of the specific target of one of the above responsive elements, the nanoswitch partially folds and its ability to bind the second target is restored. With this approach we can finely modulate the affinity of both DNA-recognition elements and aptamers using an external ligand. The modular nature of our strategy makes it easily generalizable to different DNA based recognition elements. As a demonstration of this we successfully designed five different DNA nanoswitches whose responsiveness can be regulated by different molecular effectors and targets. The convenience with which this mechanism is designed suggests that it may prove a useful tool by which sensors, genetic networks and other biotechnology devices employing nucleic-acid based receptors can be controlled with an external input.

Deployable structures have been developed for many different applications from space to mechanical and civil engineering. In the paper the general concepts of deployable structures, combining static and kinematic behaviour are presented first, also discussing their relationships with adaptive and variable geometry structures. Reported applications to civil engineering and architecture are then reviewed and categorized. The characteristics of the following systems are summarized : 1. Pneumatic Structures. 2. Tensegrity Structures. 3. Scissor-like Structures. 4. Rigid Foldable Origami. 5. Mutually Supported Structures. The problems of form finding, direct and inverse kinematics, actuation and self-deployability for some of the most interesting among the above structural types are then discussed in the paper. Some examples involving rigid foldable origami and mutually supported structures are finally presented.

The Force density Method [FDM], since Linkwitz and Schek¿s first development [8] in 1970¿s, has been well known as a powerful tool for analytical form-finding and static analysis of self-stressed structures like tensile membranes and cable networks [12]. Actually force density is always associated to a real stress state of the structure under a field of applied forces that, combined with other boundary conditions (constraints, etc.), allows the shape to evolve and improve). The approach proposed in this paper enables the technique to become more versatile so that it is possible to extend its application to different kinds of problems. In particular, changing the connection matrix and introducing virtual forces, morphogenesis can be related to general spatial frame structures looking at geometrical requirements as form and function irrespective of the applied stress field. As a demonstration of the capabilities of this tool, three different applications on current issues in free-form architecture are tested by means of a commercial NURBS based software and a VB based algorithm. One of these applications concerns the preliminary design of the roof structure of Ponte Parodi project, by UNStudio Amsterdam, a multifunctional building to be located on the waterfront of Genoa, Italy.

In this paper an optimization problem related to the tessellation of a free form grid shell is presented. This kind of structures is generally composed by a supporting grid that defines the geometry of a large number of cladding elements always different one from another. From the constructive point of view it means that every single piece needs to be designed and produced "ad hoc", then marked and positioned with the aid of an assembling table. In order to reduce the heterogeneity of grid-shells elements, several optimization strategies referring both to evolutionary and gradient-based techniques, have been tested and compared. In view of future development, a multi-objective procedure that involves static analysis combined with the discussed geometrical optimization is finally proposed. All the free form geometries are defined and handled by means of a commercial NURBS based software. On the contrary, the development of all the presented optimization procedures has been possible thanks to the implemented VB based programming language of the same NURBS based software. Due to the smoothness of the solution domain of this specific problem, gradient based procedures seem to be the most efficient in the rapidity of convergence to the optimal solution.