Thursday, July 12, 2018
Waugh Thistleton Architects, the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) and ARUP are collaborating to present ‘MultiPly’, a modular cross-laminated tulipwood pavilion, in the Sackler courtyard of the V&A from September 15, 2018. MultiPly, one of the London Design Festival’s Landmark projects, will be comprised of a maze-like series of interconnected spaces that overlap and intertwine, and will encourage visitors to re-think the way we design and build our homes and cities.
The three-dimensional structure will be built out of a flexible system, made of 17 modules of American tulipwood cross-laminated timber (CLT) with digitally fabricated joints. Like a piece of flat-packed furniture, it will arrive as a kit of parts and will be simply and quietly assembled in under a week. Since it is built out of modules, the pavilion can be taken apart and reassembled in a new home after the London Design Festival. MultiPly confronts two of the current age’s biggest challenges – the dire need for housing and the urgency to fight climate change and presents the fusion of modular systems and sustainable construction materials as a solution.
“The main ambition of this project is to publicly debate how environmental challenges can be addressed through innovative, affordable construction,” says Andrew Waugh, Co-founder of Waugh Thistleton. “We are at a crisis point in terms of both housing and CO2 emissions and we believe that building in a versatile, sustainable material such as tulipwood is an important way of addressing these issues.”
Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is an engineered timber that can be used to build walls and floors making up the structure of entire buildings. It has a layered construction with the
wooden planks turned at right angles in each successive layer, creating a panel with equal strength in both directions, similar to plywood. Weight for weight, CLT is stronger than steel and concrete and can be machined to incredibly high tolerances. This makes it ideal for prefabrication and rapid assembly, reducing construction times by around 30 percent.
Tags: AHEC, Arup, London Design Festival, MultiPly, tulipwood, Waugh Thistleton Architects
Comments: