Tesselion : Adaptive Quadrilateral Flat Panelization

Tesselion is located at the Philadelphia University Architecture & Design Building & will be up until October.

Address : 4201 Henry Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19144

Feel free to visit & take photos (send me any images & I will post them on the web)!

Images from Phase 2: (12) 4′x8′ sheets CNC fabricated by Continental Signs and Jared Laucks.  (www.continentalsigns.net)

2 Full strips (27 panels) have been folded, riveted and bolted together.  5 strips still to be assembled.  There are 187 total panels in the canopy structure.

A few images from the final assembly.  5 sheets have been CNC routed and delivered, 20 still out for fabrication.

Many thanks to the material sponsor, Alliance Metals (www.alliancemetals.com), for providing ( 28 ) 4′ x 8′ sheets of 1/16″ white aluminum!

Images from a fourth full scale mock-up from 1/16″ aluminum sheet.  (1) 4′x8′ sheet including 9 full panels and folded connections.

Many thanks to Jared Laucks and Continental Signs for fabrication.

A few images from a third full scale mock-up, looking at 1/16″ aluminum’s folding capability.

Many thanks to Jared Laucks & Continental Signs for fabrication and photos!

The following shows six full scale 1/8″ metal connections that were CNC routed and assembled.  Many thanks to Jared Laucks for fabrication.  Two modules were tested: 1. a tooth & notch connection, 2. a bolted tab connection.

Results:

-The tooth restricts the connection from sliding into the panel notch.  This results in weakening the metal connection as it requires a bit of forcing!

-The tooth must be longer than the current 1/8″ to ensure that it does not slip out of the panel.  Though, this would make the connection even more difficult to slide into the panel notch??

-The tab for the bolt connection on the panel cannot be folded by hand because there is minimal leverage.  This requires more surface area in the metal piece OR a thinner gauge metal!!  Both will be tested for structural integrity.

-Material thickness needs to be taken into account i.e. a  slot must be cut in the panel to offset the material inside the panel and allow each panel to meet perfectly.  The metal tab for bolting also did not take material thickness into account.

-A “v” notch should be used, rather than a channel, to score the fold lines.  This would ensure that all angles meet @ 90 and minimize error.

-If a tooth & notch connection is used, a larger bottom piece should be added to ensure strength.

-Add 1/8″ to all notch cuts in the panel and metal connection as a router cannot cut square notches…this resulted in 1/8″ on both sides being unusable. 

All slight failures aside, the connection worked very well and added up to the exact angle for each panel in both axis!!!!

More to come!