Architects design structures to last for generations. They erect buildings that will become classic additions to the skyline and last for generations due to solid foundations unsusceptible to catastrophic disaster. Researchers at the Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) at the University of Stuttgart have taken a different approach in their recent 2018 Aggregate Pavilion, a moveable structure composed of thousands reusable star-shaped parts.

For the last ten years, researchers at ICD have studied how the behavior of granular substances, such as sand or gravel, can be adapted into an inhabitable structure. Their pavilion is the latest result from this research, and the first fully enclosed architectural space that has been entirely constructed from elements which hold their position by loose frictional contact […]

Source: A Prickly Structure Made of 70,000 Reusable Hexapod Particles