Star Hub Kit: Exploring Archimedean Polyhedra

Edited by Philip Beesley

Living Architecture Systems Group

This folio accompanies a construction kit that has been developed by the Living Architecture Systems Group employing soft, resilient star-shaped socket joints combined with short push-in struts. By combining arrays of these joints and struts, many kinds of geometric organizations can be easily explored. 

The particular forms supported by this construction system include transitions between closed, hardened shells and open membranes. The patterns included here relate to the intricate skeletal systems that can be found in the microscopic worlds of living nature. Colloids and manifolds are intermediary forms that occur at transitions between states of solid, fluid, and gas. Within those worlds may be found hardened spherical shells and faceted crystals as well as flowing membranes and floating, open structures. By developing tangible form languages based on these transitional kinds of forms, new generations of designers may be able to find renewed ways for working effectively with far-from-equilibrium environments. 

Downloadable 3d printable patterns and assembly instructions are included within this publication, supported by open-source Creative Commons licensing that permits adaptation and extension of the construction kit. 

Additional patterns may be found in the Living Architecture Systems Group Folio publication entitled Archimedean Solids. That publication, may be downloaded for free at the following link: 

https://livingarchitecturesystems.com/publication/geometry-kit/