This article by Simon Schleicher, Andrew Rastetter, Riccardo La Magna, Andreas Schönbrunner, Nicola Haberbosch and Jan Knippers, investigates the form-finding and design potentials of bending-active plate structures. Using two reference projects from the recent past, the authors present different design methodologies that either follow a geometry-based or integrated approach.

A closer look at the newly accessible tools for digital form-finding and analysis reveals their increasing importance for the design process. In order to better demonstrate their potential, the authors present three case studies, which each separately enhances the integrated approach and in combination indicate the existence of a much larger design space of bending-active plate structures.