The cardboard dome design

Japanese architect Shigeru Ban was responsible for the design of the Japanese pavilion at the World Exhibition in Hannover 2000. The structure consisted out of long cardboard tubes that were bend over each other. Jeanette van der Steen attended a lecture of Ban at the NAi (Dutch Architecture Institute) and got fascinated by his designs. She asked him to design a temporary dome for her theatre group on the island of IJburg, near Amsterdam. In the fall of 2002 Ban made a design

Fig. 7-8. Schiphol Airport, designed by Benthem

& Crouwel Architects

Fig. 9. Centre Pompidou, Paris.

Designed by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano

Fig. 10. Centre Culturel Tjibaou, New Caledonia.

Designed by Renzo Piano

consisting out of a 16-frequent icosahedron in the tradition of Richard Buckminster Fuller. An icosahedron consists out 20 regular equilateral trianhulated surfaces: a complete sphere is built up out of 20 regular triangles, which were applied 5 times in this spherical roof. Later on I will further address this.

Dr. Peter Huybers of Civil Engineering TU Delft has published many studies on this subject. The shape of the dome (span versus height with folded edges) is identical to the 60 meters span Aviodome on Schiphol Airport and the Toyotadome in 5DDPVGRQNYHHU&RPSDUHGWRUHFHQWH[SHULHQFHVZLWKµÀXLG

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contaminates ordinary structures.

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the same time a thorough material research project and material development on part of Octatube, the chair of Product Development TU Delft and also the research & design JURXS µ&DUGERDUG¶ RI SURI )RQV 9HUKHLMHQ ZDV LQYROYHG

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experiences of Ban in construction with cardboard, this type of cardboard use seemed to surpass the available amount of knowledge when issues are involved like tensions and weight load. The sporadic available technical data form Japan were GH¿QLWHO\ LQVXI¿FLHQW WR PDNH DQ LQGHSHQGHQW HQJLQHHU¶V

judgement about the behaviour of cardboard as a structural material. Despite repeated requests it seemed impossible to acquire structural data from design teams and contractors who participated in the construction of the Japanese pavilion in Hannover (the municipality of Hannover, Buro Happold, cardboard supplier Sonoco and architect Ban). In Stuttgart 1998 I heard my colleague prof.dr. Jörgen Schlaich proclaim:

Fig. 11. Aquadrom in Bremen (50m span), Germany

Fig. 12. Dome of Nationale Nederlanden building (30m span) in The Hague, The Netherlands

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years this seemed rather fast.

Therefore for this design in cardboard all material data had to be determined from our own research. In November 2002 the development was initiated. This included the process of material research based on tests in the Laboratory of Product Development (PO-lab) and Octatube on the Rotterdamseweg 200, Delft and a process of material design: determining the exact geometry, tube lengths, node detailing and so on. In this case research and design could be described as a split: far DSDUW\HWLQÀXHQFLQJHDFKRWKHU

In November and December 2002 numerous cardboard tubes, supplied by Dutch companies, were tested in the PO-lab. The results of this research were compared with the required load from the construction analysis, which was executed several times and sent in by computer in the mean time. Again and again the results of practical tests proved to be utterly disappointing. The tubes already cracked at the diagonal seams at a minor load. But the horizontally wrapped tubes ZHUHQ¶WWKDWPXFKVWURQJHUHLWKHU7KHXWLOLVHGJOXHSURYHG

Fig. 13. Japanese Pavillion during the World Exhibition in Hannover.

Designed by Shigeru Ban Architects

Fig. 14. Japanese Pavillion during the World Exhibition in Hannover.

Interior.

to be the decisive factor in construction use of cardboard. On a Boosting meeting in December 2002, colleague designer )ULVR.UDPHUVXJJHVWHGPHWRXWLOL]HDPHODPLQHFRPSRVLWH

to reinforce the cardboard, instead of using the inferior glue.

A clever idea, yet this would make recycling of the cardboard impossible. After two months of research and a long period of waiting for new tubes from the Dutch cardboard industry, we were still not convinced of the feasibility of the cardboard tubes for this dome design. In the end the German company Sonoco was able to supply us with cardboard tubes that were 40% stronger than all other tubes previously tested.

This extra strength was primarily achieved by the use of new instead of recycled paper; a learning stage for the entire cardboard industry. Of course the tested tubes are developed for packaging and not for construction.

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Ban, was executed at Octatube under my strict supervision.

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frequecy subdivision. Because I have designed over 30 domes worldwide – all in steel and aluminium – I know what repetition factors mean. Consequently I proposed to reduce the frequency from 16 to 8, or even 6. The number of tubes could be reduced to a quarter or even less. Ban, however, seemed to be in love with cardboard: the more the better. This was opposed to my minimalist principles including the cost HI¿FLHQF\%XW-HDQHWWHYDQGHU6WHHQKRQRXUHGWKHRULJLQDO

design despite the fact that costs would increase if the dome would be realized in its original design.

A different issue concerned the edges at the bottom of the dome. The circumference of the dome would have 5 arches with a height of 1.5 meters; too little to walk underneath and use as an entrance. In that phase I proposed to deform the geometry and assign a height of 2,5 meters to the edge arch.

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assure a good accessibility. Subsequently a deformation came to existence with a regular geometry derived of an icosahedron.

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alternative geometry with the help of computers. A slight BLOB edge to it one could say. Nowadays it is quite easy with contemporary computers, but in the days of Buckminster Fuller a similar deformation would be impossible. Ban was relentless; this proposition was no good for him. It was decided to stick to the original geometry and to build 5 corner Fig. 15.&ORVHXSVRID¿UVW

detail using bolted connections before tensile testing

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detail using bolted connections before tensile testing

nodes on 5 elevated tetrahedron-shaped supports.