Assessing the performance of segmented timber shell structures within the South African built environment based on the holistic interplay between regional material, manufacturing and assembly conditions

Abstract

The construction industry faces multifaceted challenges of environmental degradation and declining productivity amidst the continual need to build. Biomimetics has emerged as a field of research that addresses these challenges by emulating the performative capabilities of natural systems, which has been made possible with the advent of integrative computational design (ICD) tools. Despite its potential, the application of these tools remains largely under-investigated in developing economies such as South Africa, where the need for expressive and regenerative architecture is becoming increasingly important amidst rapid urbanisation and burgeoning infrastructure demands. Segmented timber shell structures represent a convergence of innovations within this field. Thus, the study aims to create a framework that assesses the performance of this building system across material, manufacturing and assembly processes within the South African built environment. A scoping literature review distils the characteristics of the nation’s construction industry. These findings are then investigated as qualitative themes through quantitative parameters in a simulation case study of a segmented timber shell. Leveraging the simulation and analytical capabilities of ICD tools, the system’s structural and fabrication requirements are considered in conjunction with the nation’s contextual conditions. The findings indicate that there are opposing requirements in terms of material resourcefulness, structural integrity, fabrication management capabilities and skills availability. A balanced consideration leads to distilling hexagons as the regionally optimal geometric segmentation method, with an edge length approximation within a flexible range of 800mm to 1000mm. Moreover, the choice of local mass timber manufacturers does not play a significant role in the overall performance of segmented shells. The value of this research lies in its mixed-method approach, which defines the boundary of what is practically producible, both structurally and, more importantly, contextually.