Creating novel dynamic architectural forms from kinetic elastica-ruled surfaces

Dynamic architectural forms are studied for many novel applications, as they can reconfigure their shapes to generate striking visual effects and obtain improved structural performance to respond to environmental changes. Such architectural forms may be created using the elastic-kinetic approach to achieve complex elastic deformations without mechanically complex systems. In this paper, we propose a new dynamic architectural form based on the concept of "kinetic elastica-ruled surface," which can rationalize dynamic curved surfaces using a series of non-interacting elastic strips bent to their minimum energy states. We classify the formed surfaces into two categories based on their motion behavior: "distanced-based" and "rotation-based" kinetic elastica-ruled surfaces. We demonstrate that distanced-based kinetic elastica-ruled surfaces can achieve interesting wave effects simply by controlling the support distances of parallel elastic strips. Moreover, we show that rotation-based kinetic elastica-ruled surfaces can alter their shapes by controlling the radial motion of the boundaries using non-parallel elastic strips. A full-scale rotation-based kinetic elastica-ruled surface is built to demonstrate its capability to realize a lightweight, high-speed, and cost-effective construction.