Innovative Timber Constructions

Abstract

In recent years, the necessity of using renewable resources and sustainable solutions in the building sector has become obvious, and interest in timber as a building material has revived. Novel timber-derived products, such as massif block panels, have emerged and the use of such products is spreading. The IBOIS research concerns the development of a new generation of timber constructions, made out of innovative timber-derived products, derived by applying textile principles on a building scale. It aims at the unprecedented exploration and study of timber related structures and their structural analyses within a framework integrating the mechanical and structural principles of textiles. The validity of this approach is based on the fact that both, wood and fabrics, are fibre-based tissues. Since timber can be viewed as a fibre-derived product it follows that the analogy between micro scale fibre structures and timber-derived wooden structures can be explored at micro-and macro-scale. The concise observation of existing textile techniques and fabrication methods combined with investigation lines such as textiles, mathematical descriptions, study of timber rib shells, woven wood fabrics, architectural and structural applications, digital modelling, scalar relationships, structural analysis and optimisation processes lead to a new family of timber constructions based on the logic and principles of textile fabrics.