Design for reuse: synthesis of kit-of-parts structures

This research continues the work on structural design through component reuse by developing a new methodology to design diverse non-modular structures that can be built from a kit of parts, i.e. design for reuse. The kit of parts comprises load-bearing elements and joints that are designed to be assembled, disassembled and reassembled into multiple structural arrangements. This way structural components can be reused for multiple service cycles in different structures, which reduces environmental impacts.

The design methodology developed through this research can be thought of as the inverse process with respect to stock-constrained structural optimization, i.e. design from reuse. Designing a kit of parts requires dimensioning and detailing of all parts for all intended uses. All parts have to fit different structure layouts and all connections must allow multiple assemblies. The initial geometry and topology of the intended designs are given as input. The design method comprises two steps: 1) the structure geometries and the kit-of-parts element dimensions (cross-section and length) are optimized to maximize reuse; 2) joint-to-element connections are optimized to reuse each joint in multiple structures.

This methodology has been applied to design structures such as space frames and grid-shells. Case studies have shown that, although kit-of-parts elements might be oversized to meet the worst-expected demand among different uses, material input is significantly reduced because only a subset of elements is required to be produced with respect to one-off construction. This methodology has been successfully applied to design and fabricate a kit of parts to build three pavilion-scale prototypes of diverse layouts.