A wood-textile thermal active architectural envelope

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.