Curved Forming Panel Facades

The performative and visual aspects of curved forming/bending thin “formable” planar materials is explored. Early tests for deflection indicate that curved forming of the surface creates both a decorative and stiffer sheet.

Currently job shop manufacturing techniques typically limit the forming of planar materials to straight lines (press brake forming). Curved shapes are generally associated with more expensive hard tooling. This hard tooling unfortunately also limits variation (cost and time) in components (as compared with more flexible shop tools) especially with more popular parametric variations in facade design. New methods of machining and cutting metals with high performance CNC machining techniques (laser, plasma and water jet) allow for mass customization of panels for rainscreen facades and solar gain control devices with curved features while allowing use of conventional shop tools and CNC techniques.

Panel deflection of rectilinear panelized systems with curved deformed/stiffened features where tested to simulate wind loads. Panel deflection of curved formed surfaces and panels compare favorably with flat reference sheets and panels. Various curved designs are fabricated and tested. The methods and issues of fabricating are evaluated to better understand the effects of curved forming as a viable method of stiffening panels when compared to conventional flat panels.

While curved forming offers the ability to stiffen panels it is also important to improve panels in a decorative way by allowing the flexibility to craft custom designs based on parametric tools and potentially more organic and interesting shapes. Photographs of the samples are included for this visual reference.

The history of curved forming metal and current relevant digital development tools are identified and used to illustrate potential variations on concepts.

The performance of static lighter weight mechanically stiffened rain screen panels can be expanded to include curved formed panels with an integral hinge allowing for dynamic/articulating facades components expanding curved forming to active applications including solar screening and natural ventilation.