RhinoVAULT

The Rhinoceros® plug-in RhinoVAULT, developed by Dr. Matthias Rippmann at the Block Research Group of ETH Zurich, emerged from research on structural form finding using Thrust Network Analysis (TNA) and was developed to facilitate the creation and exploration of compression-only, funicular structures.

Based on TNA, RhinoVAULT provides an intuitive method for funicular form finding, adopting the same advantages of techniques such as graphic statics, but offering a viable extension to fully three-dimensional problems. The designer can control the many degrees of freedom of highly indeterminate three-dimensional equilibrium systems to explore structural form.

Since its release in 2014, RhinoVAULT has been downloaded by more than 30.000 people, it was awarded in the category "Structure / Physics Formation" at ALGODeQ, an international competition for algorithmic design programs, and it has been used to design surprising free-form masonry vaults and shell structures all over the world.

Projects

References

Rippmann M., Lachauer L. and Block P. RhinoVAULT - Interactive Vault Design, International Journal of Space Structures, 27(4): 219-230, 2012.

Rippmann M. Funicular Shell Design: Geometric Approaches to Form Finding and Fabrication of Discrete Funicular Structures, Doctoral dissertation, Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich, 2016.