Architectural Students Explore Shape Shifting Structures Using Kee Klamp

The university setting is a great place for exploration. This is exactly what Nik Nikolov is doing with fellow faculty and students at Lehigh University's Mountaintop: exploring how shapeshifting and architecture intersect. They are in the early days of exploration and development, but you now never know how these studies might transform the way that we live.

One of their recent posts shows a diagram of the structure and how it comes together. Using steel pipe, Kee Klamp pipe fittings, Teflon tape and rubber rods, they are fashioning a structure that is interactive in nature.

The team selected Kee Klamp because of their paradoxical combination: they can be used to build a rigid steel structure that still maintains some degree of flexibility. The clamps slide on to the pipe and can be left free floating or clamped down.

Using fittings from our Sketchup library, they were able to construct a virtual model in a CAD program before beginning the hands on work.

The short-term goal for this particular project is to cover it with an elastic skin and feature it at an upcoming local event. Over the long term its exciting to imagine where these ideas might take us.