Adaptable Wood Structure

The principle of the “Digital Wood” demonstrator has been developed in a student design project to explore solutions for the actuation of load-bearing structures in combination with materials from renewable resources. Integrated live actuation offers a multitude of applications for the adaptability of load-bearing structures – either to generate movements or to use less resources for construction by adding structural capacity when needed. The design proposal takes advantage of the principle of kerf-cut wood. Being designed to offer long lever arms and a multitude of gaps, the demonstrator offers flexibility within certain bounds. This flexibility is used for steering the demonstrators movements with electromagnets. While in the current state of the student design project the actuation is controlled manually, further development would include automatic control by structure-integrated sensors. Possible applications are exemplified with a form adaptive chair and a bridge with adaptive structural capacity.

Student design project by Kristína Balušíková, University of Stuttgart.
Seminar Material Matter Lab, WS 17/18