Project 1- MELBOURNE RECTANGULAR STADIUM

PROJECT 1 | Professor: Dr. Wei Yan 

Karla Padilla (M.ARCH Student)

Texas A&M University 

MELBOURNE RECTANGULAR STADIUM, AUSTRALIA

The total cost of construction was over $250 million, construction began in 2007 and finished in 2010.

The stadium was designed by architect Philip Cox and the ARUP group and it has a capacity of 30,000. 

The structure of the stadium consists of a lightweight steel bio-frame roof design.

MASS 

STADIUM SEATING 

I started the modeling of this project with the field and stadium seating. Using grasshopper and the TORO plugin I created a typical soccer field. Also, TORO provided a node that allowed me to determine the number of rows and seats. (see image below)

With TORO I am also able to change the type of bowl (rectangular, oval, round)

Figure 1 | TORO plugin

SKIN

Melbourne Rectangular Stadium has a geodesic dome roof, to model this I started with four points at the corners (short side) (long side) (corner). 

Using offset and setting a midpoint as reference to parametrically control the radius of these curves I was able to create the base curves. 

Figure 2 | Long| Short| Corner Curves

Figure 3 | Base curves

Using 'move geometry' and 'divide curve' I connected the bottom and top curves. 

Figure 4 | Bottom and Top curves connected

Figure 5

Using number sliders I am able to add or delete panels to both sides of the stadium.

Using a series of 'list item' nodes and '3 pt arc' nodes I created the necessary curves needed to create the panels. 

I wanted to control the height of each panel individually, that is why 'list item' node was necessary in order to reference the correct curve/point. 

Figure 6 | List item 

Figure 7| Referencing the correct curve

Figure 8

Figure 9

Figure 10

With 'unsplit sweep' I created the surfaces for each panel. 

Figure 11

After having the surfaces of each panel I used weaverbird plugin to create triangle panels and give them thickness.

Figure 12 | Weaverbird 

Figure 15

Figure 14 | Render view after 'baking' panels

ANALYSIS

For the analysis of part of this project I attempted to do a curvature analysis on the panels. 

Grabbing the center point of each panel and using 'surface closest point' and a 'gradient' node I was able to represent the curvature of on side of the stadium. 

Figure 15 | Curvature analysis 

I also tried to create different panel patterns, using 'morph 3D' I able to create a polygon and apply it to each panel. (see below) 

SCRIPT

RENDERS

Render 1

Render 2

Render 3

CHALLENGES

During the process the main challenges were the repetition of nodes. I believe is due to me trying to control each individual curve and point.  

Each panel for what I can see on the plans and images is different. 

I want to be able to reduce the number of nodes if possible in order to have a more efficient grasshopper script. 

MOVIE

THANK YOU!

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