Submitted by M.L. R. Grove on Tue, 03/09/2019 - 16:15
Centre for Natural Material Innovation
Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge
Between the 1st and 7th July 2019, the Centre for Natural Material Innovation was selected nationally to showcase its research on ‘Timber towers of tomorrow’ at the prestigious Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in London.
The stand was constructed in-house and modelled after an apartment nested within the proposed Oakwood Timber Tower at the Barbican. The exhibit brought to life the familiar sensory appeal of timber with an innovative display of the group’s research across scales – from 3D-printed cell walls and samples retrieved from the Mary Rose to skyscraper models flown in from across the world.
After water, concrete is the most consumed material by humanity. Its production is resource intensive and leads to tremendous carbon dioxide emissions. Timber is about five times lighter than concrete and is the only building material that we can grow. Every tonne of timber expunges 1.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Advances in engineered timber in the last few decades make it a renewable alternative and our research shows how we can fundamentally transform the way we build to enable new naturally based materials to substitute conventional manufactured ones on a global scale.
Download an Education Pack
Download a foldable model of the River Beech Tower, Chicago
CNMI website: https://www.natmat.group.cam.ac.uk/
Videos
Royal Society: Timber Towers of Tomorrow
Cambridge University: Wooden skyscrapers: Sustainable homes of the future?
Research funded by
The Leverhulme Trust
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Interreg France (Channel) England – ERDF
Arts and Humanities Impact Fund, University of Cambridge
With support from
PLP Architecture • Smith and Wallwork Engineers
Perkins + Will • Thornton Tomasetti
Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners • Atelier One
Waugh Thistleton Architects • Eckersley O’Callaghan Engineers
Stora Enso
Pollmeier BauBuche
Margent Farm
Moso International BV
