Study 7 – Intuit Dome

Structural Engineering by Walter P Moore

Architecture by AECOM

Script and methodology:

Parameter Setup: Using number sliders, the following are defined:

• Scaling factors
• Number of radial elements
• Rotation of elements along the form
• Extent of opening

Establishing the Form:
Using the scaling factors, an approximate form of the rotational ellipsoid is modeled.

Rotation of elements:
A polar array of lines is drawn, and then rotated by a used-defined amount. These are then mapped from the planar surface they were drawn on, to the ellipsoid surface.

Filtering of individual panels:
The ellipsoid surface is divided and filtered to include only four-point surfaces. These surfaces provide the basis for the panels.

[…]

Design Challenges:
Eccentricity of triangulation.
Approximately equal triangulation length.
Direction of opening.

Results: