Abstract/Summary

This paper describes the work of Ramboll Computational Design during the design and construction of the Ongreening Pavilion timber gridshell. The structural approach involved form-finding bending-active timber laths, connected at intersections to form a doubly curved shell. The resulting form was simple to fabricate and assemble, realised using 6.5mm thick Finnish birch plywood laths that could achieve high curvature while maintaining desired strength. Due to the random nature of the final lath topology, the resulting structure was extremely stiff in spite of its low material weight, acting similarly to a continuous monocoque. The fully demountable shell was first erected at Ecobuild 2014 in London.