Spatial Curved Laminated Timber Structures

The paper describes the physical realisation of a demonstration prototype produced by mouldless wood bending of discrete laminated timber elements which are interconnected to create a predominantly compression only spatial structure. Integrated design to production pipelines is increasingly valued in Architecture, Engineerinng and Construction, as it has contributed to developing methods of generation of the so-called architectural geometry and in bringing the various disciplines in the industry closer together. The research presented is motivated by the application and use of timber in such a realm. It details a design to production toolkit along with development of custom actuator-based tool to deliver sustainable benefits of reduced material usage and wastage in addition to efficient production of bent wood structures. Furthermore, the paper proposes an alternative procedure for polyhedral reconstruction of disjointed force polyhedrons from an input graph, which enables the creationof spatial structures in static equilibrium.