Designing Lightweight Structures from Recyclable and Organic Materials: The Rethinking Lightweight Pavilion

The current development towards bending-active structural design indicates that lightweight structures constantly evolve due to contemporary demands. This paper documents the approach to rethinking lightweight structures to face the growing scarcity of resources. Since conventional composite materials in lightweight structures have severe limitations in terms of their recyclability, this raises new challenges for designers and engineers in the use of raw materials. In order to reduce the environmental impact, this research investigates the use of fully recyclable materials made from renewable resources in bending-active tensile structures. Based on an experimental approach, this paper presents an innovative pavilion design which will be exhibited as a built prototype at the IASS WG21 competition. The results of the four-step methodology consisting of parametric design, material testing, numerical simulation and the verification of the results using a mock-up structure are presented and discussed. The Rethinking Lightweight Pavilion demonstrates that the use of materials suitable for the circular economy can make an inspiring contribution to lightweight structures of the future.