Semester/year: Spring 2010 Course: Performance Oriented Design: Responsive Wood Architectures/Michael Hensel
Ripples’ uses wood characteristics (hygroscopic or differentiated shape-change under moisture conditions) as a driving question for the investigation and production of pre-stressed wood components that can resist loading and external forces while remaining thin and aesthetically appealing. It tackles the potential sustainability question of ‘achieving more with less’ and re-thinking the way in which we – as architects or designers – work with wood; less material can produce equally stiff elements, thus a new field of investigation in the use of a common material is opened.
A series of experiments are set up with different wood species in order to identify – and later be able to use this information for determining an adequate proliferation and assembly technique - its differentiated and anisotropic behaviour. Thin strips of wood are moistured and clamped in their middle and end points, allowing the internal stresses produced in wood while drying to shape and stiffen the basic element. To avoid damaging the fibre and thus reducing the strength, the components are assemblied together by different kinds of laminations.
Further exploration regarding the different aesthetic and structural possibilities of the component and its proliferation and assembly techniques allowed us to produce a series of stable pieces that could be easily transformed into a spatial assembly (see picture 1). The experience gained from the studio motivated us to participate in the Bergen International Wood Festival, where we received the second price for our experimental structure ‘Ripples’ (see picture 3a & 3b).
Together with the other student groups, the whole course was awarded the prize for Excellence in the use of wood, awarded by Trefokus, at AHO WORKS AWARDS 2010.
The project came second in the Bergen International Wood Festival Design Competition.