Wood Textile Composites – Thermal III

The development of a thermal form-active composite, based on Oak-Paulownia-Flax materials is present-ed, including new knowledge and methods for material-driven responsive envelopes in an architectural scale. The study investigates, examines, and propose an experimental wood-textile structure that directly address questions on reducing embodied and operational energy in the built environment by a novel use of CO2 absorbing regenerative materials.

Thermal-active wood bi-layers are combined with organic textiles to create a responsive and modular envelope element. This element is nested into a new lightweight load bearing BoxBeam-Zollinger structure, with flax textile surface connections. Both form-active composite and load bearing structure is inspired by skin-on-frame material-structural concepts observed in vernacular boat cultures.

The structure alone is measured to 1 kg/m2, with a combined weight of the entire responsive envelope of 4.3 kg/m2. The studies are based on experimental prototypes and computational simulation studies before a full-scale demonstrator project is constructed to test and disseminate the knowledge and methods for designing material efficient, thermally active architectural envelopes.

Funding
The research has been funded by the Realdania Foundation and the Obel Family Foundation as part of the ‘Thermal Adaptive Architecture’ project.