Esther Rivas Adrover is an author, architectural researcher, educator and artist. Her contributions to the field of transformable architecture, deployable structures, have resulted in several publications, including her expandable origami, published in the Journal of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures. She is currently undertaking research in this field at the University of Cambridge. Her work is at the intersection of science and art, and her drawings have been exhibited several times at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
After teaching Advanced Descriptive Geometry to architecture students in Spain she studied architecture at Oxford Brookes University where she later taught architectural design at degree and postgraduate level. Her interest in complex geometries led her to work for practices including Zaha Hadid Architects, where she worked on various projects in the UK and around the world. During this time her drawings ‘Library Tower and Archive in the River Thames’ and ‘The Geometry Machine, Crosby Beach, Liverpool’ hwere exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 2009 and 2011 respectively at the Summer Exhibition in the Architecture Room.
Esther’s interest in complex geometries led to a research piece on transforming architecture, deployable structures, which formed the subject for her thesis, which was nominated for the RIBA Dissertation Prize and won the Assael Scholarship. In recognition of her work, Esther was also awarded the RIBA Prize for the ‘Highest Standard in all-round Excellence’ in 2007. In 2015 she published a book with the title ‘Deployable Structures’, commissioned by Laurence King Publishing. This book displays a broad range of different types of deployable structures for architecture and design, and proposes a classification system of deployable typologies. She is currently undertaking research on the subject at the University of Cambridge with PhD supervisor Dr Michael Ramage and advisor Prof Simon Guest. During this PhD she has developed several methods to generate transformable surfaces that can expand and contract. Her most recent invention, a new hybrid type of deployable structure: origami-scissor hinged, is the first origami that can not only fold and unfold but also expand and contract. These new technologies open novel posibilities for transformable and mobile architecture, robotics, aerospace and kinetic design.
Her work has been published in several books and journals, and she has also lectured and run workshops nationally and internationally in several Universities and conferences including the University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, Oxford Brookes University, University of Westminster, University of East London, University of Greenwich, University of Siena in Italy and Universidad Cardenal Herrera in Valencia in Spain.
Research Publications on Transformable Architecture: Deployable Structures
Deployable structures can transform, expand and contract due to their geometric, material and mechanical properties; applications spread across multiple fields including aerospace technology and temporary, mobile and transformable architecture. Deployable structures allow a maximum motion, expansion and contraction with the minimum energy input. This technology enables an architecture that can be light, adaptable, rapidly built, reusable and that makes efficient use of space and materials. All these qualities therefore enable deployable structures to fully embrace the concept of sustainability. In an age where society evolves in unpredictable ways, were programmatic possibilities for architecture change rapidly, the emerging field of deployable structures is receiving increased interest as it offers a novel and versatile field for research and innovation for both its theory and practice.
Rivas-Adrover, Esther, “ORIGAMI-SCISSOR Hinged Geometry Method”, Origami7, The proceedings from the 7th International Meeting on Origami in Science, Mathematics, and Education held in Oxford UK, Volume Three: Engineering One, Ed. J.Lang, Bolitho and You, Tarquin, 2018, pp 779-793.
Rivas-Adrover, Esther, “A New Hybrid Type of Deployable Structure: ORIGAMI-SCISSOR Hinged”, Journal of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures, Vol. 59 No.3, September n. 197, 2018, pp. 183-190.
Rivas-Adrover, Esther, “Transforming Architecture Made With Scissor Hinged Deployable Structures: Alhambra Pavilions in Cambridge Market Square”, The 5th International Conference on Architecture and Built Environment S.ARCH held in Venice, Italy, Get It Published, 04.055, 2018, pp. 760-770.
Rivas-Adrover, Esther, "Classification Of Geometry For Deployable Structures Used For Innovation: Design Of New Surfaces With Scissor 2 Bar, And Form Generation Method Of Relative Ratios", International Journal of Computational Methods and Experimental Measurements, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 464–474, 2017.
Rivas-Adrover, Esther, "Deployable Structures", Laurence King Publishing: London, 2015.
Morphing Structures. Transformable Architecture. Kinetic Art
https://www.arct.cam.ac.uk/people/esther-rivas-adrover
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deployable-Structures-Architecture-Esther-Rivas-Adrover/dp/178067483X
https://www.amazon.com/Deployable-Structures-architecture-Esther-Rivas-Adrover/dp/178067483X
https://www.amazon.co.jp/Deployable-Structures-architecture-Esther-Rivas-Adrover/dp/178067483X
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Esther_Rivas-Adrover
https://www.laurenceking.com/us/product/deployable-structures/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF5QpJ3-p8U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw42lt229f4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQME9-X2HXQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFTTJwQwVjI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dOGSQ-95sU
