Professor / Director, ICD Institute for Computational Design and Construction / EXC IntCDC, University of Stuttgart
Throwback: Urbach Tower 2019. Step by step, we are publishing our videos on YouTube, which is a great opportunity to take a look back at some of ICD's past projects: https://lnkd.in/esWtHhgd The Urbach Tower is a unique wood structure. The design of the tower emerges from a new self-shaping process of the curved wood components. This pioneering development constitutes a paradigm shift in timber manufacturing from elaborate and energy-intensive mechanical forming processes that require heavy machinery to a process where the material shapes entirely by itself. This shape change is driven only by the wood’s characteristic shrinking during a decrease of moisture content. Components for the 14 m tall tower are designed and manufactured in a flat state and transform autonomously into the final, programmed curved shapes during industry-standard technical drying. This opens up new and unexpected architectural possibilities for high performance and elegant structures, using a sustainable, renewable, and locally sourced building material. The Urbach Tower constitutes the very first structure worldwide made from self-shaped, building-scale components. It not only showcases this innovative manufacturing approach and resultant novel timber structure; it also intensifies the visitors’ spatial involvement and landscape experience by providing a striking landmark building for the City of Urbach’s contribution to the Remstal Gartenschau 2019. PROJECT TEAM Cluster of Excellence IntCDC | University of Stuttgart Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) Achim Menges, Dylan Wood Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE), Jan Knippers, Lotte Scheder-Bieschin (former Aldinger), Simon Bechert Scientific collaboration: Laboratory of Cellulose and Wood Materials, Empa, Switzerland Wood Materials Science, ETH Zürich, Switzerland Markus Rüggeberg, Philippe Grönquist, Ingo Burgert Industry collaboration: Blumer Lehmann Katharina Lehmann, David Riggenbach PROJECT SUPPORT Gemeinde Urbach Remstal Gartenschau 2019 GmbH University of Stuttgart DBU German Federal Environmental Foundation InnoSuisse - Swiss Innovation Agency #icd #itke #itech #BLAG #intcdc #exc2120 #unistuttgart #universityofstuttgart #clusterofexcellence #computationaldesign #computationalconstruction #codesign #materialprogramming #research #building #architecture
