Wooden Waves

Buro Happold, London

Mamou-Mani Architects:
Architect: Arthur Mamou-Mani
Lead Collaborator: Andrei Jipa
Collaborators: Bilal Mian, Naomi Eszter Danos, Mayalen Calleja, Zoe Laughlin, Alex Drioli, Esha Hashim, Agnieska Tarnowska, Toby Plunket, Aslan Adnan

BuroHappold Engineering:
Andrew Best, Neil Bilet, Emma Greenough, James Solly

The Wooden Waves is an architectural installation suspended in the reception areas of the BuroHappold Engineering headquarters at 17 and 71 Newman Street in London, providing a visual motif connecting the two. This functional art piece celebrates global engineering practice BuroHappold’s multiple innovations in the field of complex gridshell and other types of timber structures and was designed in collaboration with Mamou-Mani Architects and BuroHappold. The structure was made at the Mamou Mani fabrication laboratory in London, The FabPub.

The components of The Wooden Waves form sinuous streams folded into unexpected configurations through an open-source and innovative digital fabrication technique of “lattice-hinge-formation”: This is a parametric pattern of laser-cut lines that alters the global properties of plywood sheets making them locally more flexible and thus controlling the 3D form without significant supporting framework. The lattice hinge method is a development of the traditional timber bending technique, using the kerf (beam-width) of the laser to form torsional springs within the material.

The modules diffuse light through the opening of the cuts when bent and also absorb sound and stabilise temperature through acoustic and phase-changing material layers integrated into the design.

More than a hundred prototypes were tested to inform the digital model and master the curvature of the final piece which forms a seamless, soft and continuous stream.

The supports of the modules were generated through a digital process called “Topological Optimisation” in which force flows are assessed and un-used material is discarded. They hold the patterned plywood sheets in their current forms through a male/female connection requiring no glue.

The Wooden Waves installation makes use of flat, off-the-shelf plywood from an FCC certified supplier, demonstrating that complex forms can be achieved through application of innovative engineering and architectural technology to a sustainable, transportation-optimised material. The piece is left untreated, showing the natural grain characteristic to engineered timber.

March 2015