Fondation Louis Vuitton: Automated production of panels
In order to keep the process for the aluminum cladding panels acceptable, the detailer POUMA developed specific software tools, which resulted in a highly automated production process.
Fondation Louis Vuitton is a museum of contemporary art near Paris designed by the iconic architect Frank Gehry. The museum is covered by glass sails, supported on stainless steel mullions upon a structural-steel and glulam main frame. The 12 sails form a cloudlike collection of canopies over the museum, with numerous curves and angles that reflect the surrounding trees and the Paris skyline.
In order to keep the process for the aluminium cladding panels fabricated by Iemants Staalconstructies acceptable, both economically and technically, detailer company POUMA developed specific software tools, which resulted in a highly automated production process.
Starting with the input derived from the designers’ 3D models in Digital Project, all relevant geometrical data was imported into Grasshopper/Rhino. This software environment allowed the detailer to develop tools that could be used to semi-automatically generate each individual panel, including a large amount of detailing. Geometrically correct panels with joints and all necessary detailing were imported from Grasshopper into Tekla using Open API, causing almost no additional fine-tuning for each unique panel.
"Through this automated approach, different teams on different locations were able to collaborate simultaneously, following equal standards,” said Ilka Mans, Project Engineer at POUMA.
