The concept of tessellation in geometric architectural design; an essay on load-bearing systems

The geometry-architecture relationship, which plays a role in basic decisions and functions and plays a limiting role in the building construction process, has an important place in determining the identity of the buildings, both in the form designs, in the definition of spatial relations, and in the decisions of the load-bearing system. Tessellations, which play a role in the differentiation of building products from each other by being used in the design process in the specified relations matrix, are among the basic methods that create the geometry-architecture relationship. Especially in the world of modern architecture, it is possible to come across tessellation configurations in the formation of buildings, their facades and load-bearing system designs. In the thesis study, the reflections of tessellation patterns, which are an important design component that plays a role in strengthening the design concept, especially on load-bearing system designs are examined. In the first stage, the load-bearing patterns were analyzed by making a situation analysis through symbolic architectural structures with different tessellation configurations. Then, 8 tessellation patterns were created with the most used geometries and their effects in terms of geometric characteristics, structural performance and cost were investigated. Planar and single curvature vault grid systems, in which symmetric/periodic types of tessellation can be applied, are used in order to create a comparable structural framework, to link tessellation patterns and load-bearing systems and to discuss the geometric potentials and differences of each tessellation configurations in these systems. The structural analyzes of the tesselated load-bearing systems designed with the Grasshopper program were carried out in the Sap2000 program using the finite element method. As a result, the geometric characteristics of the tesselation configurations obtained with eight different geometric patterns were questioned and their static behavior was tested for performance. For similar designs that will increase in use in the future, this study aims to raise awareness about the importance of geometry in load-bearing systems and the use of tessellation configurations.