Multidisciplinary Design Solutions through Parametric Modelling
by Rudolf Le Roux Arup Façade Engineer
www. arup. com
Arup façade engineer, Rudolf le Roux, presented a paper on‘ Multidisciplinary Design Solutions through Parametric Modelling’ at the Sixth International Conference on Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Computation( SEMC 2016) held in Cape Town and hosted by the University of Cape Town. Authors representing some 60 countries from all five continents presented 360 papers.
Le Roux’ s paper highlighted the fascinating ways in which parametric modelling was used in various aspects of the design of the new PricewaterhouseCoopers( PwC) Tower, a 26- storey office tower with a dramatic spiralling form( see Fig. 1). Structurally, this form is naturally trying to twist the building to collapse. Using parametric modelling, a structural column scheme was generated that counters this action in an economical way.
Figure 2 shows a plan view of the tower. Each floor plate is rotated 1.2 degrees clockwise from the floor below. The three tips of the triangular building are therefore leaning in a clockwise direction around the centre of the building. It is like building three leaning towers around a central core structure which holds them together.
Figure 1: Dramatic spiralling form of the new PwC Tower
16 Parametric Modelling