A study of digital and physical workflows used for the creation of fabric-formed ice shells with bending active frames

Cold climate regions with sustained temperatures between −10°C and −20°C offer a unique opportunity to produce temporary rigid ice spatial structures. An advantage offered by creating these unusual structures includes their ability to test the structural performance of spatial shells made from this and other analogous liquid-to-solid materials (e.g. concrete, GFRC, fiberglass, etc.) at a building scale. Additionally, because of the minimal cost of the material and temporary life of these structures, they offer a unique opportunity to explore and improve the design and construction methods used to erect shell structures in an efficient and low impact way. This paper focuses on the creation of fabric-formed ice shells utilizing bending active frames as a form-finding system. In particular, the paper will analyze the design process workflows used in three case studies of building-scale ice shell projects created by the authors and highlight the tools and methodologies developed to address the particular goals of each project. Responding to the lessons learned from these projects, a final project describing current research will be presented. In this work there is an effort to synthesize the lessons from the three previous projects and produce a congruent, iterative, and effective design and construction workflow to produce fabric-formed ice shells using bending active gridshells. An emphasis in this study focuses on the informational and methodological transfer between digital and physical tools and how these unique tools and capacities can create a synergistic design and construction language that leverages the limitations of one with the strengths of the other.