"Concepts for Transformable Structures"

We are pleased to invite you all to the guest lecture of Prof. Marios C. Phocas from Cyprus. It is a special occasion as Prof. Phocas will travel especially from Cyprus to give this lecture.

Title: “Concepts for Transformable Structures”

When: Thursday, 29/06/2023 at 6pm

Where: ILEK, Pfaffenwaldring 14.

After the lecture, we invite you to join us for a small get-together. There will be snacks and drinks while you have the opportunity to talk and socialise with all the participants. This will be a wonderful opportunity to share ideas about the topic and make new connections.

Abstract

Contemporary technology-driven design developments refer to aspects of globalization, technological material and system advances, while speed, resilience and resource efficiency gain increasing importance in meeting the challenges of global population growth and climate change. In the creation of a sustainable built environment, aspects of flexibility, structural efficiency and modularity gain significance, further enabling transformability of the building structures and components at different levels. Transformable structures may have deployable, reconfigurable, adaptive and intelligent attributes. They are capable to transform into differing shapes in response to varying functional, environmental or loading conditions. Following an outline of an integrated interdisciplinary design approach followed for the development of transformable structures, design proposals will be presented that constitute visions of an architecture based on contemporary technology and transformability attributes. By extension, kinematic approaches of reconfigurable rigid-bar linkage structures proposed and investigated by the author’s team enable minimum structural self-weight, efficient load transfer, as well as flexibility and controllability with minimum number of actuators and energy consumption. Relevant case examples provide a field of interdisciplinary experimentation and research towards the development of new innovative kinetic systems, whereas the structure continually evolves through its transformations.

Short Bio

Marios C. Phocas has been a Professor at the Department of Architecture of the University of Cyprus since 2020, as well as co-principal of the Archimedes Research Center for Structural and Construction Technology, since 2005. From 2009 until 2020 he served as Associate Professor, from 2004 until 2009, as Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture. Prior to his appointment at the University of Cyprus he held positions in teaching and research at the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) of the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Stuttgart, from 1996 until 2004, where he also completed his Doctorate in 1999, and his Diplom degree in Architecture with specialization in Architectural Technology and Structural Design in 1995. In his capacity as Interim Head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Cyprus from 2006 until 2013, Dr. Phocas was responsible, among others, for the development and implementation of the programs of undergraduate and graduate studies in Architecture at the University of Cyprus. From 2011 until 2015 he served as member of the Advisory Committee of the European Network of Heads of Schools of Architecture. He has participated in a number of European and national research projects with regard to University Education in Architecture, design and development of Prototype Structures. He is the author of numerous publications in the areas of technology-driven design, kinetic structures and earthquake resistant structural building design. He has received 15 architectural awards for project designs, in Germany and Cyprus, and has participated in a number of international architectural competition juries.

Fig. High-Rise Traffic-Port, 2013; Ó M.C. Phocas

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