Circular-planned diagrid systems and an interrelated technique using planar elements

Abstract

This paper presents the development of circular-planned diagrid systems in architecture and varying approaches in patents in relation to these developments, together with a technique introduced for producing diagrid implementations using planar elements. A circular plan creates a curved surface at its periphery that leads to the diagrid system on a curved surface, resulting in unique geometric configurations. Patents based on these geometric configurations and their details, registered between 1896 and 2016, are documented. A technique is devised by the authors as a reinterpretation of the diagrid system via planar components with its own parameters and principles. This technique may be utilized by design offices or by the students of architecture for prototyping or modelling a circular-planned diagrid structure in a precise, fast and economical manner by means of conventional CNC manufacturing techniques.