Waterjet Cutting Aluminium

We are given the opportunity to design a three-dimensional joint for a grid-shell structure and fabricate it using the water-jet technology. The aim is to experiment with geometric modeling of architectural details at a scale where a few millimeters makes a difference; to work with a material where small mistakes go a long way, forcing us to design more carefully in advance before fabricating; to fuse aesthetic and technical design considerations.

The joint is comprised of four beam elements meeting at a node at different angles. This represent a general connection for a grid-shell design created from a doubly-curved design envelope. Therefore, if the joint is solved, in a parametric manner, it may be employed for all nodes of the same grid-shell design.

The key geometric challenge of the assignment is in the limitation of the water-jet technology used here, which allows you to only cut vertically. In essence, all parts are geometrically extrusions that can only interface orthogonally. However, the joint requires us to achieve compound rotations. This is a classic challenge in complex geometry envelope design.