reGrowth
Exhibition at Pop-up Campus
RWTH-Aachen University – Chair of Structures and Structural Design
Kevin Moreno Gata, M. Sc.
Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Trautz
Stuttgart Universität – Institute for Computational Design and Construction
Dr. techn. Felix Amtsberg
Univ.-Prof. Achim Menges
The use of materials in timber construction is mainly based on the use of standard cross-sections and semi-finished parts in the form of wood materials. Even the modern forestry operation is designed for this use, and trees are planted in specially arranged planted in specially arranged small groups to provide the straightest, knot-free growth possible for efficientproduction of construction timber. The goal is to produce the longest and
thick, straight, knotless timbers. Curved knots or bifurcations have no application in the construction sector, and are separated from the preferred elements at an early stage and recycled elsewhere.
The unique material characteristics that each tree develops due to its immediate environment are considered irregularities that are not used in construction. This automatically results in a large amount of waste, where only about 50% of the felled tree actually find use as building material. On the other hand, every house stands on a different building site, for example slope, or in an inner-city gap, or in a different earthquake or snow load zone. And so the requirements in construction are also always unique.
That's why the "reGrowth" research project presented here questions the current approach to the extraction and use of construction timber and is conducting studies to show possible concepts for the use of residual materials, which are currently not considered as building due to their irregularities.
As an alternative, a design and fabrication concept is presented here, which is based natural load-bearing behavior of the actual wood fiber direction and serves as a basis for efficient basis for efficient, material-optimizing structural design in timber construction. For this purpose, it makes use of the digital tools of design, material analysis and manufacturing.
The otherwise unused sections are digitally recorded and stored in material libraries. This also allows their individual strengths and thus their potential for use in load-bearing structures can be determined.
Structural analysis and design tools, use this information to automate the best-fitting elements for the situation in question, which are then automatically which can then be automatically manufactured and installed using CNC/CAM technology.