Yuki Kobayashi

Lecturer
Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka City University
Osaka, Japan

Yuki Kobayashi (1987) is a researcher of design computing born in Aichi, Japan. He has studied architectural design with Prof. S. Takamatsu and theoretical computer science with Prof. N. Katoh at Kyoto University. He was awarded Young CAADRIA Award 2014. He has worked as an assistant professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology since 2015. Currently he is a lecturer at Osaka City University.

Combinatorial Rigidity Himmeli (3 x 3 x 3 cubic lattice)
Combinatorial Rigidity Himmeli (3 x 3 x 3 cubic lattice)
30 x 50 x 30 cm
Aluminum tube, brass tube, and yarn
2020

A bar-joint framework is composed of rigid bars connected at their ends (free joints) and is one of the framework characterized in combinatorial rigidity theory. I thought it was difficult to create the bar-joint framework as pin joints that allowed free rotation in three dimensions. At that time, I was looking at Prof. K. Miyazaki's book, I came to know the existence of Himmeli, a traditional Finnish craft. If we create a 3 x 3 x 3 cubic lattice in Himmeli, it is flexible and hangs down as shown in the photo left. To make this Himmeli rigid, it is necessary to add 42 braces by Maxwell's theorem. By deciding the position of the brace to be added based on combinatorial rigidity theory, we can create a Himmeli as shown in the the photo right.