The project will be concentrated on creating a technology push for a new material. The MadFlex (PCT WO2016120785 A1) is a lightweight asymmetric composite material panel, having a sandwich-like structure. It exhibits two order-of-magnitude difference in bending stiffness, depending by the direction of the applied bending moment, thanks to a reversible buckling phenomenon of one of its skins: it is flexible, even rollable, on the one side, while it is rigid like a traditional sandwich panel on the other one. In addition, its foam core confers to the MadFlex good insulation properties.
The design and development of a novel flexible habitat starting from the potentialities of the new material will face a multiplicity of research needs which will be integrated into a systemic approach and organized in four main steps:
1. The requirements identification (months 1-4) at the material / building component / habitat level. The new material will be tested and its characterization will orient the right matching with a set of technical requirements for adaptive structures and flexible skins.
2. The form+structure integrated design process (months 3-9) supported by advanced form-finding design tools and performance-based modelling tools. This phase will be organized in the following subtasks:
2a)modeling and analysis of a simple component representative of the new material in order to determine the main structural characteristics for preparing a virtual representation of the material behavior and Identification of typical parameters for the introduction of the material into a preliminary design software;
2b) the form-finding process, exploiting novel concepts of structural integrity and architectural shapes based on MadFlex;
2c) the performative design phase, focusing on the thermal/visual/acoustic comfort at the component level (such as lightweight façade, solar shading, covering membrane) and the energy optimization at the system/habitat level (such as shape ratio, gain vs heat losses, solar radiation vs daylighting).
3. The experimental phase (months 9-12), where a first demonstrator of the new adaptive skin will be installed and tested, in order to correlate the numerical results of the structural analysis with the experimental results of mechanical biaxial tests, with the ultimate aim to validate the behaviour of the new habitat and to optimize its final design.
4. The study of different application of the novel habitat solutions and the evaluation of social, economical and environmental impact (months 6-12), by using multi-criteria analysis, Life Cycle Cost (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tools.
Nowadays two trends emerge in building development: one is the possibility to create new spaces following environmental changes and users needs, while the other is the optimization of materials for reducing energy consumptions in constructions. The building envelope is the primary subsystem through which external conditions and environmental changes can be regulated. On the other hand, façades are responsible for more than 40% of heat losses in winter and for overheating in summer, due to their low level of adaptability.
This underlines the potential that lies in the field of innovative adaptive building systems, and points out the main objectives of the project:
1. to achieve a new design methodology that meets the energetic optimization requirements and the user needs, through bending active structures (curved shell elements which base their geometry on elastic deformation from an initially straight, planar configuration) applied as compliant mechanisms for novel adaptive skins;
2. to apply a multi-functional, flexible, “aeronautics-derived” composite material (MadFlex) to figure out futuristic habitat solutions, foreseeing innovative scenarios of seamless and self-regulating, fully-integrated with the structure, building skins;
3. to eventually investigate the performances and the economic feasibility of a basic adaptive habitat, its responsiveness in terms of ability of reconfigure itself, and its add-ons or variations for specific climates or functionalities.