Building Design Knowledge through Materials Research

This studio challenged students to articulate, extend and speculate on the theoretical, phenomenological, technical and aesthetic potential of wood (including e.g. engineered wood, green wood, composites, laminates, cardboard, paper, bamboo, interiors, fabrication, detail, etc) in developing beautiful architecture.The competition brief required that wood be used as the primary structural material, with special emphasis placed on resource efficiency in both construction and everyday use (including environmental controlsystems and response to climate). The studio emphasised material innovation and recognised the growing availability of recycled wood and engineered wood products. Another major goal of the studio was to make students aware that background research is a fundamental element in approaching any design project. This is particularly true within the context of ongoing development in materials, technology and information systems. Students were also encouraged to consider methodologies for collecting, recording and disseminating data on site, climate, materials performance and detailing. Students could choose to work individually or to collaborate in teams. The minimum requirements for the competition entries were: building plans; site and building sections; exterior perspectives, axonometric or model photographs of the project; one interior perspective illustrating the character of the principal space(s) and materials; two large-scale, detail drawings: one illustrating the architectural/structural use of wood in the design solution, and one that describes a furnishing, fixture or similar detail (suggested scale was 1:10); and a brief essay (appearing as part ofthe presentation boards) describing the most important concepts regarding the use of wood in the design project.Students were also allowed to include any other information that would help to communicate the nature of their solutions. While electronic media-based proposals were encouraged, submissions had to be printed out on no morethan four 500X700mm panels to conform to competition guidelines. Due to the Northern Hemisphere academic timetable and submission requirements for the competition, the design project had to be completed in 7 weeks. The rest of the semester was spent developing certain aspects of the projects in more detail and - just as importantly -in preparing a public exhibition of our work.