Bending curvature: a design tool for interactive complexity

Bending is a phenomenon that occurs with great frequency due to the presence of natural forces like gravity, wind. It occurs whenever an element is subjected to an external load applied perpendicularly to its longitudinal axis. every known element, independently of its stiffness, exhibits certain amount of bending. This paper explores this phenomenon not as a failure mode to provide tolerance for, but as a tool to design with. The design research presented here emerged from a combination of digital explorations calibrated through analogue experiments of bending rods. The aim was to create a model that would incorporate the interaction between bending rods and the transfer of forces. Rods were connected to each other with rings that allowed for certain degree of freedom, though limiting them to be in contact with each other at all time. The rods started bending in various planes; their curvature is negotiated with that of their neighbours and thus a process of self-organisation with multiple parameters was present until equilibrium was attained. Intrigued by this observation, this research seeks to look at bending as a possible design tool. understanding the behaviour of a single element in its simplex situation and simulating this behaviour in a computational environment has been the starting point for building up a model where complexity is built progressively as a result of local interactions among several bending rods.