Wakeford Library, Hooke Park / Architectural Association, 2017

The first phase of a built research project for a new library, exploring innovative construction strategies for a two storey glu-laminated timber frame building. Working with Design+Make students as part of the annual summer build programme at the Architectural Association’s forest campus in Dorset, I assisted to prototype timber glu-lamination processes with robotic fabrication to form a complex structural skeleton.

Designs were developed, tested and constructed using two innovative workshop spaces: The first a long-span workshop designed by Richard Burton (ABK) and Frei Otto, using spruce thinnings to form a series of vaulted compression arches; The second a workshop space known as ‘Big Shed’ constructed by the Design+Make programme itself, primarily for large-scale component assembly, employing wood ‘in-the-round’ and constructed from local Larch.

A robot arm, originally from a car manufacturing production line, was tooled with a hacked bandsaw to precisely sculpt room-sized glu-laminated planar components with specific three-dimensional geometries to form a complex structural skeleton. Whilst at Hooke Park I participated in visual programming workshops using Rhinoceros and Grasshopper, and was introduced to forestry management strategies and operations.