Automotive Body Manufacturing Technology for Architecture

© Trako RWTH
© IBF RWTH
© IBF RWTH
© Trako RWTH
© Trako RWTH
Among the traditional engineering disciplines, building and civil engineering has made least progress with respect to innovative manufacturing and construction. The Kaiser Dome erected by Donald Richter and Buckminster Fuller in 1957 was a step in the direction of lightweight construction using thin sheet metal. The forming technique at that time involved steel dies and required large numbers of identical sheet metal formed parts to achieve a minimum of efficiency. Therefore the researchers used polyhedrons
based on Platonic solids for the geometric arrangement of
their dome-shaped structures.