Innovative wickerwork
LivMats Pavilion in Freiburg
© ICD/ITKE/IntCDC University of Stuttgart, Rob Faulkner
The LivMats pavilion in the Botanical Garden of the University of Freiburg is the first building to have a load-bearing structure made entirely of robotically wound flax fibre.
© ICD/ITKE/IntCDC University of Stuttgart, Rob Faulkner
With each of the 15 components about 5 m long weighing some 100 kg, the structure covering an area of 46 m² has a mere weight of 1.5 tonnes – all made possible by robotic fabrication, bionic design and use of flax, a traditional material that offers similar mechanical properties to synthetic glass fibre.
Robotically wound
In the fabrication process, a robot places fibre bundles on a winding frame, and the component automatically grows in size without producing waste or offcuts. Developed by ICD and ITKE, the coreless winding process combines high material efficiency with high load-bearing capacity.
© ICD/ITKE/IntCDC University of Stuttgart, Rob Faulkner
The pavilion itself is reminiscent of wickerwork and plant structures – not surprising, as the net-like wood fibre bundles of saguaro and prickly pear cactus served as models: indeed, the lightweight structure of both cacti has a high load-bearing capacity. The pavilion is designed to withstand full snow and wind loads and is natural through and through. Merely a waterproof polycarbonate skin protects the fibres from UV radiation and moisture.
© ICD/ITKE/IntCDC University of Stuttgart, Rob Faulkner
© ICD/ITKE/IntCDC University of Stuttgart, Rob Faulkner
© ICD/ITKE/IntCDC University of Stuttgart, Rob Faulkner
Interdisciplinary development
The pavilion is the work of the ITECH master`s programme at the Cluster of Excellence “Integrative Computational Design and Construction for Architecture (IntCDC)” at the University of Stuttgart in collaboration with biologists from the Cluster of Excellence “Living, Adaptive and Energy-autonomous Material Systems (LivMats)” at the University of Freiburg. They are convinced that combining new technologies and traditional materials particularly in the area of resource-saving structures has a future, seeing it as offering the "potential to significantly reduce the ecological footprint of buildings."
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Projectteam: Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD), Prof. Achim Menges Cluster of Excellence IntCDC, University of Stuttgart and Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE), Prof. Jan Knippers, Cluster of Excellence IntCDC, University of Stuttgart
Scientific Development: Marta Gil Pérez, Serban Bodea, Niccolò Dambrosio, Bas Rongen, Christoph Zechmeister
Project Management: Katja Rinderspacher, Marta Gil Pérez, Monika Göbel
Location: Botanischer Garten der Universität Freiburg (DE)
Concept Development, System Development, Prototyping:
2018-2020: Talal Ammouri, Vanessa Costalonga Martins, Sacha Joseph Cutajar, Edith Anahi Gonzalez San Martin, Yanan Guo, James Hayward, Silvana Herrera, Jeongwoo Jang, Nicolas Kubail Kalousdian, Simon Jacob Lut, Eda Özdemir, Gabriel Rihaczek, Anke Kristina Schramm, Lasath Ryan Siriwardena, Vaia Tsiokou, Christo van der Hoven, Shu Chuan Yao
2018-2019: Karen Andrea Antorveza Paez, Okan Basnak, Guillaume Caussarieu, Zhetao Dong, Kurt Drachenberg, Roxana Firorella Guillen Hurtado, Ridvan Kahraman, Dilara Karademir, Laura Kiesewetter, Grzegorz Łochnicki, Francesco Milano, Yue Qi, Hooman Salyani, Nasim Sehat, Tim Stark, Zi Jie, Jake Tan, Irina Voineag
Facade Development: Tim Stark
With support of: Okan Basnak, Yanan Guo, Axel Körner
Student assistance: Matthew Johnson, Daniel Locatelli, Francesca Maisto, Mahdieh Hadian Rasanani, Lorin Samija, Anand Shah, Lena Strobel, Max Zorn
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