Alessandro Liuti The University of Melbourne Melbourne School of Design

alessandro.liuti@unimelb.edu.au +61 415 355 793

Feb 2018

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Bio Born on 04th March 1986 in Pesaro, Italy.

Education 2014-present: PhD on “Forming elastic gridshells with air Simulations and technology” (Supervisors Dr. Pugnale, A. and Chan, T. K.)Research focuses on developing and testing a pneumatic means of erection for elastic gridshells. Operational research is performed bymeans of numerical models (Rhino / Grasshopper / Kangaroo / Karamba / Abaqus) and physical prototyping (small scale andlarge scale).

2006-2011: Combined BA + MA degree in Architecture and Building Engineering (Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Italy / MA thesis developed at Aalborg University, Denmark) 5 years completed on November 2011; 110/110 cum laude; MA thesis developed on the issue of multi-objective optimization for large-span cover structures. A first academic approach to building literature review, computational workflow, FEM simulations integrated to the design process, academic paper writing.

Relevant academic and professional experience: 2018, 8-12 Jan: Tutoring the Workshop “TEAL:S Textile Architecture, Lightweight construct ion: Sheltering design workshop” (Coord. professor Zanelli A.) International workshop held at Milano Politecnico University within Francoise Fournier, Peter Gosling, Nebojsa Jakica, Carol Monticelli, Salvatore Viscuso, Cecile Wilquin; topics spanned across digital and analogical design approaches to lightweight structures

2017, 8 Nov: 1st prize at the Benelli Hackaton competition Cross-disciplinary workshop focusing on innovation – hosted by the multicorporate Benelli; this is a design sprint-like event in which candidates are invited to develop ideas, strategies, and create usable ideas for new products. The event was sponsored by an incubator, and fostered by the industry.

2017, 3-7 Jul: Tutoring the Workshop “Computational Morphogenesis for Design” (Coord. Visiting professor Pugnale A.) International workshop held at the University Federico 2 in Naples within the international program of the Design for the Built Environment Master class; topics spanned across digital design and construction routines, form-resistant behaviour, and how to learn and reinterpret the lessons from historical precedents into everyday object of design.

2017, Semester 1: Tutoring ABPL90107 Landscape Studio 1: Design Techniques (Coord. Dr Wallis, J.) Subject introducing fundamental approaches for thinking about, exploring and generating design within the realm of landscape architecture. Principles of computation and techniques of data processing are used as a flexibly extendible platform for subsequent specialised learning and a broad spectrum of design explorations.

2017, Semester 1: Co-studio leader Studio 20 “How virtual becomes real” (co-studio leader Dr Pugnale, A.) This 7th edition of How Virtual Becomes Real inquired the research field of form-resistant structures design-to-construction working methods, aiming to synthesise the virtual and the real by means of both physical form-finding and numerical models. Along with class teaching, also a series of video-tutorials and didactic material was made available to students.

2016, Semester 1: Tutoring ABPL90107 Landscape Studio 1: Design Techniques (Coord. Dr Wallis, J.) Subject introducing fundamental approaches for thinking about, exploring and generating design within the realm of landscape architecture. Principles of computation and techniques of data processing are used as a flexibly extendible platform for subsequent specialised learning and a broad spectrum of design explorations.

2016, Dec: Forces & Forms, Workshop on flexible environments (Athens programme, Coord. Prof Zanelli, A.) Lecture given at Milano Politecnico on the topic of the evolution of lightweight structures throughout time, active bending, design and construction issues and possible solution to them through the development of appropriate design to construction processes. Also focused on the current development of my PhD.

2015, Semester 1: Tutoring ABPL-30048 Architecture Design Studio: Air (Coord. Dr Roudavski, S. & Gunzburg, S.) Studio exploring the impact of computation on architectural design. Principles of computation and techniques of data processing are used as a flexibly extendible platform for subsequent specialised learning and a broad spectrum of design explorations.

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2015, Semester 1: Tutoring ENVS-20001 Digital Design and Fabrication (Coord. Loh, P.) Studio focusing on digital design and workflow from ideas to the making of physical artefacts – with a focus on exploring the relationship between material and technology. Contemporary digital design software, tools and technology are used for designing and executing the design intent.

2014, Semester 2: Tutoring ENVS-10004 Designing Environments (Coord. Prof Hutson, A. & Dr Ristic, M.) Studio focusing on how people identify needs and devise ways of satisfying them through built or engineered manipulation of the environment. Issues of movement and perception, environmental behaviour and the responsible use of physical environmental systems are explored.

2012-2013: Structural Engineer in Enereco spa (Italy) Civil engineer at the civil department of Enereco spa, leading oil and gas engineering company. A refinement in FEM software, building-related and material-related problems analysis and solution; development of team-working skills and design process optimization.

2012: Honourable mention in the international competition “Green Boulevards” Call for ideas focusing on how to integrate landscape design, sustainable energy production and transportation along the Rome-Salerno highway. Project exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2012.

2012: Invitation for the 1st Architectural Biennale of Thessaloniki “Architecture and the City in South-Eastetrn Europe” Part of the team for the design and construction of the Italian pavilion Loop_3.

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Relevant research Gridshell structures Forming elastic gridshells with air, Simulations and technology

PhD topic. This research focuses on the application of a pneumatic membrane for the erection of elastic grid-shells. Digital and physical tools, as well as design and construction strategies are developed and tested through multiple case studies according to the criteria of Operational Research.

Form-resistant structures have been widely studied in terms of form-finding / optimisation and conventional construction techniques are consolidated. The experience of designers such as Frei Otto, Heinz Isler, Luigi Nervi shows that form-resistant structures feature a historical and seamless integration between form, structure, material and building technique. However, the rise of the “non-standard” from Computational Morphogenesis to fabrication has been contributing to fragment this framework, reopening the issue of tectonics and pointing out limits related to the construction phase. Traditional erection techniques for gridshells such as formworks, scaffoldings and cranes are considerably waste-producing and demanding in terms of resources, time and manpower – and several are the reasons that discourage the use of such structural systems. Computational Morphogenesis and Parametric modelling offer the opportunity to implement a design process in which construction informs and is informed by the rest of the process itself, providing tools for overcoming the above mentioned issues. Digital Fabrication offers moreover the opportunity to investigate non-traditional materials, tools and strategies. RC form-resistant structures seem to have new possibilities thanks to the application of tensioned membranes to Digital Fabrication, however literature mainly illustrates case studies on small pieces of architecture / sculpture, lacking of adequate investigation on the use of tensioned membranes on bigger scale (i.e. Inflatable Membrane Technology). Inflatable Membrane Technology has never been used for lifting post-formed grid-shells or casting complex RC shells; it is relevant and original to deepen this topic in order to explore the structural and architectural potential, the pros and the cons of this technology for Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry. A cost-effective design-construction framework will help a comeback for shell and grid-shell technology in the market of medium and large span structures (i.e. emergency cover structures, temporary cover structures, seasonal cover structures). Methodology relies on the development of multiple benchmarks and case studies both in the digital and the physical environments.

Related material: AIRSHELL, Bending timber with air: https://youtu.be/6flPMmNxUVA Liuti, A., Pugnale, A. & Colabella, S. (2017). The Airshell prototype: a timber gridshell erected through a pneumatic formwork. IASS2017. Liuti, A., & Pugnale, A. (2016). Inflatable Membrane Technologies applied to the construction of post-formed timber gridshells. ICSA2016. Liuti, A., & Pugnale, A. (2015). Construction of post-formed gridshells by means of Inflatable Membrane Technologies. ASA2015.

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Accoya timber gridshell

Parametrics and Optimisation. This 8x8m timber gridshell was constructed for the University of Melbourne elective subject “Issues in Technology”. The coordinators Pugnale, A., Colabella S. and Pone S. decided to readapt an existing project to the specific site; a specific focus was made to optimise the bracing system in order to have an optimal curvature for the diagonal elements. GAs and Parametrics were used.

Diagonal bracing plays a fundamental role in the construction of a post-formed timber gridshell, but its design is generally based on a set of small beams running through the nodes of the grid. It is therefore worth exploring new ways to design diagonal bracing, such as using continuous laths and defining new patterns that totally overwrites the original grids. From the conceptual point of view, this approach corresponds to the panelling of a continuous surface, and it provides an opportunity for research in parametric design. The system generates from a basic rule: to use the square element in order to break the square grid of the gridshell. To do so, I started working on the planar gridshell configuration G* (see figure above); the simplification is legit since both the topologies and the surface domains of the two grids G and G* are the same. Then I set a rotation α and an offset O to draw the first square. By repeating this procedure with a series of different angles (option 1), the rule became messy and not to the point with the aim. I thus decided to reformulate the set of relationships by considering a single angle α only. As a guiding principle for choosing a recursive configuration over another, I used a GA aiming to minimise the maximum curvature of each and every element. This case study concerns a single-objective optimisation, depending on two parameters: α and O. It can be said that the radial recursive rule was then reinterpreted to handle complexity by splitting the bracing in 4 quadrants. By splitting them in two layers, it was possible to create a spiral-like pattern, which reminds the principles of reciprocal frames. Images of the construction and the final outcome follow.

Related material: www.karamba3d.com/accoya-timber-gridshell

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Ephemeral Architecture Innovation in festival architecture from design to construction

Conventional cable-net structures generally feature a tensioned structural net carrying a secondary non-structural layer of cladding panels; this commonly implies that cladding is developed subordinately to the form-found surface – i.e. by either using curved panels, or discretizing the original surface through planar quads or triangles. This paper showcases the design and construction of a 45m x 12.5m x 7.5m cable net structure developed for the Rainbow Serpent Festival 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. The experimental structure works as a collaborative system in which metal sheets are interconnected and tensioned by short steel cables into a system of doubly-curved minimal-surface sails. On the one hand, this allows the experimental cable-net structure to feature lightness and structural efficiency while, on the other hand, it allows breaking a conventional regular cable grid into a freeform shape. The project illustrates how the final geometry can emerge as a negotiation between form-finding and manufacturing issues; such a seamless workflow allows seeking a higher geometrical complexity and an undisclosed aesthetic potential. Planarization and dynamic relaxation algorithms are described and their interaction is discussed in the paper. Design and technological aspects, as well as timeframe and budget features, are described in detail within the text; a special focus is made on the CAD-to-CAM workflow and the benefits which the fields of festival architecture, temporary events and reusable installations can gain from it. Related material: Liuti, A. & Bessabava, R. (2017). Innovation in festival architecture from design to construction. IASS2017

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In(flatable)Mod(uli)

Continuation of a design proposal from Studio AIR, S1 2015. This work aims to study the potential of an inflatable modular system developed through digital design and physical fabrication.

Conventional inflatable material systems offer a quick and reversible means of construction. However, they present limitations in terms of adaptability to different boundary conditions. Conventional, discrete, form-resistant structures feature stability through the complex organisation of discrete elements; however, these cause inertias in terms of flexibility and diseconomies if applied to projects with a short lifespan. This paper discusses an alternative application of inflatable buoyant moduli to a discrete form-resistant structure to provide an adaptive installation for temporary events. Numerical and physical models are developed through a series of benchmarks, first, and a design project application eventually, to study the inherent predictability of this complex system and evaluate the constructability, costs, flexibility and spatial quality of it.

Related material: Liuti, A., Liew, K., Ng, L. C. (2015). In(flatable) Mod(uli); An air-buoyant form-resistant structure. CAADRIA2016 (Reviewing)

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Loop_3

Mathematical functions and Digital Fabrication. Pavilion for “Architecture and the City in South-Eastetrn Europe”, 1st Architectural Biennale of Thessaloniki, 18, January -26 February 2012, Thessaloniki, Greece. Mathematics provides an underlying layer for the description of reality’s inner complexity in terms of computation as well as the tools to enhance and intensify research and expression, elegantly and seamlessly linking science, art, economy, philosophy and other disciplines, merging them into force fields of a unified yet topographically differentiated territory. Architects relentlessly explore this territory ever since, using mathematics as a privileged tool for tracing systematic paths as well as enhancing their expressive language. The installation is a self-standing object that uses mathematical trigonometric functions (explored through parametric design software) as a mean of aesthetic device, exploring a use of rationality in complex shapes that merges user spatial interaction, curvature as a structural and expressive strategy (the voluptuous ripples also strengthen the overall shape) and form as a sorting device to deploy functions (carrying 3D models, showing pictures from various projects as well as a pad to interactively explore design strategies). “Shapes are diagrams of forces” (D’Arcy Thompson). “Shape determines functions, and the energetics of functions dictates the optimal structure required” (“The language of shape – the role of curvature in condensed matter” – Hyde and Larsson, 1997) Loop_3 explores the rationality of complex shapes joining spatial interaction, curvature as structural and expressive strategy (the voluptuous ripples give help the overall stability) and shape as sorting system for the deployment of functions (flat parts are intended for 3D prototypes while pictures occupy the most vertical surface parts to facilitate reading). All installation components are derived from planar elements and collaborate mutually to structural stability, morphological organization and function deployment, creating systemic relations among the various parts differently from traditional structure-skin-ornament linear dependency (the tensioned lycra skin concurs to structural stability while the plywood core morphology comes first from the curvilinear trajectories and then optimizes material use). Images of the installation built in Thessaloniki and Bologna follow. Related material: www.suckerpunchdaily.com/2012/11/05/loop_3/ www.evolo.us/architecture/loop_3-installation-investigates-mathematical-trigonometric-functions/

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Computational Design The Church of Longuelo

Parametric Design and Computational Morphogenesis. A series of papers developed on the church of Longuelo by Architect Pino Pizzigoni aims to highlight how computational and optimisation tools affect the way architects design and foster the creative phase The Church of Longuelo, which was built by architect Pino Pizzigoni in Italy, between 1961-1966. It was conceived as composed by two major elements – an irregular frame and a set of shells suspended to it. The entire design process was based on the calculation of the frame on which the shells have been just added as a dead load. This research inquiries possible alternative redesign of the church through the application of computational tools to the original concepts defined by Pizzigoni. It is meant to extend the range of possible redesigns by illustrating further variations for the church. A set of analyses and optimisation cycles are performed, and the feedback provided is used to refine the initial parametric system and variables. Several models are therefore presented and comparisons with the original design and process highlight how computational and optimisation tools affect the way architects design and foster the creative phase. Images of a set of phenotypes retrieved from the GA follow. Related material: Liuti, A., & Pugnale, A. (2015). The church of Longuelo: alternative interpretations by means of Computational Morphogenesis. (Accepted, in preparation). Liuti, A., & Pugnale, A. (2014). Computational Morphogenesis applied to the church of Longuelo - Reflections upon a possible parametric interpretation of the original design concepts. ASA2014.

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Selected publications and works Liuti, A., Pugnale, A. & Colabella, S. (2017). The Airshell prototype: a timber gridshell erected through a pneumatic formwork. IASS2017 https://youtu.be/6flPMmNxUVA

Liuti, A. & Bessabava, R. (2017). Innovation in festival architecture from design to construction. IASS2017

Liuti, A. & Pugnale, A. (2016). Inflatable Membrane Technologies applied to the construction of post-formed timber gridshells. ICSA2016.

Liuti, A., Liew, K., Ng, L. C. (2016). In(flatable) Mod(uli); An air-buoyant form-resistant structure. CAADRIA2016.

Liuti, A. & Pugnale, A. (2015). Construction of post-formed gridshells by means of Inflatable Membrane Technologies. ASA2015.

Liuti, A. & Pugnale, A. (2015). The church of Longuelo: alternative interpretations by means of Computational Morphogenesis. (In publication).

Liuti, A. & Pugnale, A. (2014). Computational Morphogenesis applied to the church of Longuelo - Reflections upon a possible parametric interpretation of the original design concepts. ASA2014.

Liuti, A. (2014) Parametric diagonal bracing design for the Accoya timber gridshell (developed for the construction elective subject at the University of Melbourne, “Issues in Technology”, Semester 2, 2014. Coordinators Alberto Pugnale, Sofia Colabella and Sergio Pone) www.karamba3d.com/accoya-timber-gridshell

Liuti A., Pugnale A. & Erioli A. (2013). Computational Morphogenesis in architecture: structure and light as a multi-objective design/optimization problem; Proc. intern. symp ICSA 2013 www.icsa2013.arquitectura.uminho.pt

Erioli A., Giacobazzi C., La Piccirella F., Liuti A., Mercatali M., Monesi R., Rinaldi S., Tabellini G., Talozzi L., Tommasoli M., Tortorella G. (2012). Loop_3; Architecture and the City in South-Eastetrn Europe www.suckerpunchdaily.com/2012/11/05/loop_3/ www.evolo.us/architecture/loop_3-installation-investigates-mathematical-trigonometric-functions/

Ai sensi del D. Lgs n. 196 del 30 giugno 2003 “Codice privacy”, il sottoscritto autorizza il Politecnico di Milano a pubblicare sul sito WEB di Ateneo il proprio Curriculum Vitae, per i fini istituzionali e in ottemperanza al D. Lgs n. 33 del 14 marzo 2013 “Decreto trasparenza” come modificato dal D. Lgs. 97 del 2016.