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A wood-textile thermal active architectural envelope

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Abstract

The development of a thermal form-active composite, based on Oak-Paulownia-Flax materials is presented, including new knowledge and methods for material-driven responsive envelopes in an architectural scale. The study investigates, examines, and propose an experimental wood-textile structure that directly address questions on reducing embodied and operational energy in the built environment by a novel use of CO2 absorbing regenerative materials. Thermal-active wood bi-layers are combined with organic textiles to create a responsive and modular envelope element. This element is nested into a new lightweight load bearing BoxBeam-Zollinger structure, with flax textile surface connections. Both form active composite and load bearing structure is inspired by skin-on-frame material-structural concepts observed in vernacular boat cultures. The structure alone is measured to 1 kg/m2, with a combined weight of the entire responsive envelope of 4.3 kg/m2. The studies are based on experimental prototypes and computational simulation studies before a full-scale demonstrator project is constructed to test and disseminate the knowledge and methods for designing material efficient, thermally active architectural envelopes.

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Funding

We are grateful for the support enabling the studies by research grants received from the Realdania Foun- dation and The Obel Family Foundation. The published study is part of the research project Thermal Adaptive Architecture.

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  1. The Royal Danish Academy - Architecture, Design, Conservation, Copenhagen, Denmark

    I. W. Foged

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  1. I. W. Foged
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Correspondence to I. W. Foged.

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Foged, I.W. A wood-textile thermal active architectural envelope. Archit. Struct. Constr. 2, 553–563 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44150-022-00042-z

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