Material programming with self-shaping furniture
Wood is one of the oldest building materials in the world - but thanks to advances in technology and simulation software, we now understand it better and better. With its special properties, wood can be used to create components that bend themselves into a predefined shape.
At the Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) and Cluster of Excellence Integrative Computational Design and Construction for Architecture (IntCDC), we deal with the design of components made of self-shaping wood. This workshop provided a look behind the scenes of research on wood as a building material in the fields of architecture and furniture design through a combination of theoretical background lectures and practical sessions how wood fibers shrink and swell in relation to their moisture content. The participants then learned how to use digital tools developed by ICD to simulate and design their own ideas for self-forming furniture. The workshop concluded with a hands-on session in which the participants physically prototyped their design ideas.
The workshop was open to classes 7-10 (age 12-16) and held at the Large-Scale Construction Robotics Laboratory (LCRL) of the IntCDC, University of Stuttgart.
Wood is one of the oldest building materials in the world - but thanks to advances in technology and simulation software, we now understand it better and better. With its special properties, wood can be used to create components that bend themselves into a predefined shape.
At the Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) and Cluster of Excellence Integrative Computational Design and Construction for Architecture (IntCDC), we deal with the design of components made of self-shaping wood. This workshop provided a look behind the scenes of research on wood as a building material in the fields of architecture and furniture design through a combination of theoretical background lectures and practical sessions how wood fibers shrink and swell in relation to their moisture content. The participants then learned how to use digital tools developed by ICD to simulate and design their own ideas for self-forming furniture. The workshop concluded with a hands-on session in which the participants physically prototyped their design ideas.
The workshop was open to classes 7-10 (age 12-16) and held at the Large-Scale Construction Robotics Laboratory (LCRL) of the IntCDC, University of Stuttgart.
Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD)
Ekin Sila Sahin, Laura Kiesewetter, Tiffany Cheng, Prof. Achim Menges
Student Assistant: Laura Marsillo
Cluster of Excellence Integrative Computational Design and Construction for Architecture (IntCDC)
Christa Knoll
Christa Knoll
