The main idea of the project was to create a  400 square meter building for a rowing club with as few columns as possible, in order to allow the kayaks to enter and be transported inside the building. In addition, the building materials had to be  locally available, in this case, timber.

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After going through timber frame examples, I found a structure that is not built with timber, but allows construction with large openings: Frei Otto's tree structure from 1982. The possibility of creating a structure with only one column to support the entire load of the building was interesting, and at the same time satisfied the need for a  large space with clean columns.

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The main challenge in the structure was to apply Otto's concept using timber rather than metal materials.

In order to find the appropriate geometric configuration for the construction, Karamba's Cross Section Optimization was used in combination with a genetic algorithm. Eventually, the result allowed for the use of simple, repetitive timber pieces and metal joints in order to create the tree-like structure.  In addition, all the parts where able to be prefabricated, easily transported, and assembled.

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Another advantage of this method is that the building envelope is not dependent on the construction in any way, which allows for very large openings that draw light irrespective of the weather.

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Ultimately, the design offers a large, open space that not only serves the rowing club, but is also open to the public and includes a coffee shop with a panoramic view of the river and the rowers, all under a roof supported by just three columns.

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The project was created as part of the Timber Design course at UNSW during a student exchange.

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Advisers:  Eng' John Carrick, Arch' Christian Grennan

 

Year: 2016