Transformable Curved Thin Glass Greenhouse

Abstract

The use of new generation thin, lightweight and damage-resistant glass, originally conceived for electronic displays, is being very recently proposed for structural applications, in particular for adaptive and movable skins and façades. This paper explores this concept and presents a study on the structural use of thin glass in greenhouses for protected agriculture, based on the use of cold-twisted elements and on the exploitation of their buckling phenomena. This innovative kind of greenhouse is obtained by means of mechanisms typical of transformable architecture, as the modification of the curvature of the panels, allowing the "opening/closing" of the structure roof. The kinetics of the structure will allow to modify not only the orientation and the inclination of the different surfaces forming the greenhouse, but also size and shape of the openings. Numerical analyses and “design-by-prototyping" strategy, entailing the construction of a reduced-scale mock-up of the greenhouse, have demonstrated the feasibility of this concept.