Bei den Mühren 72
D-20457 Hamburg
fon +49 40.360 250 03
mobil +49 177.717 43 16
simon.vogt@cobra-4d.de

Design and parametric construction

Degussa Goldhandel: Trade Fair Stand, 2012


The Degussa fair stand sparkles like a palace from a fairytale. The walls are covered in metal
plates – 6.435 of them, to be exact – which form a gradient from gold to silver. One of the corners
twists like a stack of bullions that has been pushed by someone.

The whole design was built in parametric 3D-CAD from the first draft in order to have full control
over the production process and the costs.

We use Digital Project which is fully parametric and allows fundamental changes relatively late in the
design process. This made it possible to produce the curved plates and the twisted corner within a narrow
time frame and also within budget. The plates used for the twisted corner had 175 unique shapes mounted
on 40 individually bent aluminium profiles.

The advantages of parametric modelling:

The client asked us to change the size of the plates and the gaps shortly before the start of production.
The change took a couple of minutes – including all production plans.

DEGUSSA GOLDHANDEL GMBH: Trade Fair Stand, 2012 I © 2014 COBRA-4D




Panelling and parametric construction

Forum Gold und Silber, Schwäbisch Gmünd, 2013


The Forum Gold and Silver contains an exhibition space and offices. Opening simultaneously
with the Landesgartenschau 2014 in Schwäbisch Gmünd it will be a golden landmark for the city.
Our task was a façade-study and a preliminary draft of the supporting structure.

The entire façade is driven by the boundary points listed as X-, Y-, Z-coordinates in an Excel-spreadsheet
whichis directly linked to the 3D-master-file. As a result, changes to the position of individual points whithin
the façade were allowed. Changes in the outer skin lead to a new surface-panelling and a new layout
of the subconstruction: all automatically generated with only little manual tweaking necessary.

The advantages of parametric modelling:

The coordinates were subject to change which would have lead to costly changes in a non-parametric 3D model.

FORUM GOLD UND SILBER, Schwäbisch Gmünd, 2013 I © 2014 COBRA-4D




Parametric construction

Office Building, Osnabrück, 2013


The golden façade with its rounded corner is an eyecatcher in the city-center of Osnabrück.
The custom-made cassettes were mounted in front of the 1970s concrete skeleton.

The cassettes are cut and bent from flat brass sheets and mounted with a three-degrees-of-freedom
agraff-system to the main support structure. The rounded pieces are pre-bent and held in form
by stiffening aluminium combs riveted into the back. More than 150 unfold-templates were generated
directly from the 3D-model.

The advantages of parametric modelling:

Costumizing the new cassettes to the old building posed major challenges. The parametric
model allowed to prefabricate the cassettes and mount them without further changes on site.
The planners had full control over the production process.

OFFICE BUILDING, Osnabrück, 2013 I © 2014 COBRA-4D




Parametric façade paneling

Centrale Termice FIAT, Florence, 2011


Historical power station of the FIAT factory in Florence, Italy. It was intended to become
a new landmark by being clad in copper.

Our task was to optimize Prof. Fabio Capanni‘s design and make it viable. This was achieved
by rebuilding the intended design shape as a NURBS surface and linking uniform panels parametrically
to this surface.

Additionally we provided a structural calculation for the substructure, taking both the 1930‘s
reinforced concrete and seismic movements into consideration.

Centrale Termice FIAT, Florence, 2011 I © 2014 COBRA-4D




Parametrically punched panels

Entdeckerbad, Damp, 2014


The task was to translate the image of a viking boat into a hole-pattern.
Using smart algorithms gave us full control of diameter definition, distances and gaps.

Thousands of holes were punched into the aluminium panels which clad
the refurbished entrance of Damp‘s swimming bath.

ENTDECKERBAD, Damp, 2014 I © 2014 COBRA-4D