ZIPLOOP
ZIPLOOP © CREATE
ABOUT THE PROJECT
ZipLoop is a robotically enhanced timber pavilion that combines advancements in computational craftsmanship and material circularity into a liveable and bespoke structure. In the contemporary age of industrial delocalization and digital ubiquity, our project aims to become a slow-tech manifesto, expression of physical engagement with material agency, local resources, artisanal techniques, and explorations of machinic craftsmanship.
The latent potential of wood
Timber is a renewable and lightweight material, which combines environmental advantages and outstanding performances for architecture. Wood is one of our main resources in fulfilling the necessary decarbonization objectives for our planet, as it is the only structural material that acts as a carbon sink. While our contemporary outlook on wood is often opportunistic and simplistic, Nature grows wood as an intrinsically complex and multifaceted material that possesses behaviour. The industrial paradigm of capitalistic production ignores this material agency and opportunities in the name of a standardised idea of progress. Complexity is erroneously labelled as a synonym for time-consuming, extra-cost and wasteful extravagance. As a result, commercially available wood products come into our hands in very limited shapes and forms, downsampling the tectonic and expressive potential of the material.
In ZipLoop we explore an opposite trajectory. We aim to establish a novel relationship between material and machine in a continuous negotiating loop, in lieu of fast and repeatable industrial processes where the material is a mere passive receiver of alien design ideas. We exploit the full potential of wood with a dual approach. Firstly, as a versatile material that can precisely bend and twist into variably curved elements to achieve tectonic and structural virtuosity. Secondly as a circular material loop, where by-products of wood machining such as chips and sawdust are upcycled to make a wood-based bio-composite with functionally graded transparency. In both these processes, robots play a fundamental role, acting respectively as a computationally controlled craftmachine and as material co-creator in human-robot interaction.
Robots as craftmachines
Our project explores wood as a material with extended morphological capacity. Wood craftsmen interact and domesticate the material with bespoke tools, techniques and languages. Luthier artisans, in particular, have adopted in the early XIX century the technique of kerfing in order to manufacture the curved geometries of musical instruments by applying a series of saw cuts that enhance the bending capacity of wood and transforming straight wood linings into precisely curved elements. Acoustic perfection was achieved through the means of intertwined material and geometrical properties. In resonance with this technique, our project elevates traditional kerfing in both scale, process and performance.
Zip-bending and structural integrity
In the project, we achieve a load-bearing curvilinear structure entirely conceived using computational processes and robots, reinterpreting the antique tradition of kerfing. In order to achieve load-bearing capacity, interlocking layers of kerfed wood elements are joined together with the technique of zip-bending. Learning algorithms approximate the geometrical and physical behaviour of bentwood and instruct industrial robots in tailoring custom patterns that are individually manufactured. Wood sawing, cutting, carving as observed in craftsmen are translated into a robotic process that enables the production of complex structural elements without the need for extra devices. In our simulation and laboratory prototypes, it is seen that the parts joined together with zip-bending offer structural capacity comparable to solid wood elements, while achieving
Circular Material Loop
Machining wood to achieve new performance inevitably involves material loss. Robot-processing the zip-bent structure of our pavilion generates by-products, such as wood chips and sawdust for about 16% of the utilized wood mass. This is not material waste, by any means. We implement a material loop where this by-product is collected, sorted and upcycled to form a novel wood-based bio-composite panel that is utilized as a waterproof and protective cladding envelope for the roof and the floor. We produce an innovative composite material based on our own lab-prepared recipe which has a polymeric matrix prepared with pine resin, along with other plant-based ingredients. Robotically deposed wood chips and dust are added locally to create a functionally graded material with variable transparency. This wood-based biomaterial is shaped into custom panels that are used to make the pavilion liveable and protected from light and atmospheric agents.
PROJECT CREDITS
This is an entry proposal for the Tallinn Architecture Biennale Installation Competition #TAB2022.
Design Team: Roberto Naboni, Alessandro Zomparelli, Anja Kunic, Luca Breseghello (CREATE Group, University of Southern Denmark)
Structural Design and Engineering: Riccardo La Magna (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, KIT)
Material Studies: Omar Rawashdeh (CREATE Group, University of Southern Denmark)