Recode Wicker
Zukunft Bau Pop-up Campus
Aachen 2022
Tutors
Daniel Fischer, Javier Fuentes, Eszter Olah
The "Recode Wicker" project investigated how the traditional and circular building materials willow and earth can be reinterpreted using digital production methods. Using spatial wicker structures with willow as a rapidly renewable raw material, the possibilities of the digital design and construction process were demonstrated. During the one-week workshop, components were produced on a scale of 1:1 on an individually designed machine.
Preserving our livelihoods through a sustainable transformation to a circular economy is a key challenge of our time. The construction industry accounts for a large share of global economic output and is also responsible for a large proportion of the world's waste and resource consumption.
The volume of construction projects that rely on wood as a sustainable raw material has increased steadily in recent years. In view of the simultaneous scarcity of wood as a resource, the need for research into further diversification of renewable building materials is becoming clear. Local and rapidly renewable raw materials such as willow or poplar offer great development potential, as their use can help to significantly improve the energy and ecological balance of the construction sector. Despite their irregularity, these materials can be processed using digital manufacturing processes and returned to the biosphere at the end of their life cycle.
Digital production with naturally grown materials
Braiding or weaving the long, thin willow rods into baskets shows how geometry and textile techniques can be used to achieve a structural rigidity that these materials would otherwise not have. Even if the individual willow rods alone have little load-bearing capacity, their potential - as with a willow basket - lies in their complex spatial arrangement. The aim of the project is to investigate these spatial willow bodies as integrated formwork and reinforcement for robust components made of willow-earth composite for various applications.
Computer-based design methods and digital manufacturing technologies can support the industrialized construction application of such natural materials, as they can deal with deviations and anomalies of grown building materials. These are currently still one of the biggest obstacles in standardized serial production systems. Willow weaving is an ancient craft that can be transferred to future scalable and economical applications in construction through digital design and manufacturing processes. In addition, the traditional use of earth or earth-straw mixtures as a composite to fill this wickerwork can be reinterpreted using digital processes for the production of architectural structures.
Digital design methods and digitally controlled material and structural experimentation enable the exploration of multiple geometric variations and provide a greater degree of control at different scales. Thanks to their flexibility and versatility, digital construction technologies enable the realization of structures with a high level of detail and precise articulation of structure and materiality, including graduated transparency or rich visual details, to meet a wide range of construction requirements.
Digitized production can enable the manufacture of components from rapidly renewable materials on a large scale, taking into account structural and economic requirements, thus creating the conditions for their relevant use in the construction industry.
Research-based teaching on the pop-up campus
The pop-up campus project "Recode Wicker" built on the research projects of the Digital Design and Fabrication professorship established in 2021 at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Based on the concept of "research-based teaching", current research questions, findings and results were integrated into the design studios and seminars, resulting in a lively flow of information between teaching and research. Through iterative and prototype-based approaches, the scope of possibilities at the interface of construction technology and design was investigated. Prototypes were preferably realized on a 1:1 scale in order to generate relevant research findings on an application-related scale.
Initial findings in the digital weaving process with willow as a sustainable and circular building material were gained in the Master's design studio "Digital Wicker" in the winter semester 2021/2022 of the Chair of Digital Design and Fabrication. Here, basic principles were developed in research and teaching to identify the potential of innovative construction research. Digital design and manufacturing methods were used to create efficient lightweight structures that counteract the increasing scarcity of materials.
The basis for the pop-up campus project "Recode Wicker" was provided by the results and processes of previous semesters. In order to conserve resources, avoid the emission of pollutants and reduce non-recyclable construction waste to a minimum, the potential of local raw materials was investigated. Can the use of digital design and production methods create low-emission and recyclable building structures that provide innovative answers to future-relevant questions in the construction industry?
The results produced on a 1:1 scale represented a diverse solution space, which was explored in greater depth and developed further as part of the pop-up campus. At the sustainability festival, the current state of research as well as solutions and results generated to date were discussed and jointly developed further.
During the workshop week, participating students had the opportunity to test the material behavior for automated machine processing through manual experiments, develop concepts and finally implement them using digital design and production methods.
The special challenges described in digital production with natural materials such as willow - the irregular growth, the different shapes and diameters, their different processability depending on their pre-treatment - and the possibilities of meeting these with digital technologies were intuitively revealed to the participants. Approaches to solutions and dealing with material and process problems could be illustrated directly.
During the workshop, a 1:1 scale prototype was created, which was produced digitally using a specially designed machine and then exhibited at the pop-up campus. The resulting structure, consisting of a total of four components, demonstrated an exemplary composite of wall and ceiling components that can be put together in a modular way and already have structural properties without being filled with earth. The work combined aspects of sustainability, scarcity of resources, material efficiency, locally available building materials, circular economy and digital design and production methods.
The pop-up campus project "Recode Wicker" demonstrated how architectural structural components can be produced from the machine-made composite of willow. These components comply with the principles of circular construction - they are recyclable, sustainable and - compared to conventional construction methods such as reinforced concrete - significantly reduce CO2 emissions.
The format of the workshop as part of the Pop-up Campus proved to be an excellent way of communicating ideas, approaches and challenges in this work in a clear and impressive way using small, exemplary projects.
Dieses Projekt wurde gefördert vom Bundesinstitut für Bau-, Stadt- und Raumforschung im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Wohnen, Stadtentwicklung und Bauwesen aus Mitteln der Zukunft Bau Forschungsförderung.