Stories On Design: Temporary Timber Structures

Temporary Timber Structures, huh? I know. The shit we cover over here is pretty broad, and my personal and professional interests are pretty varied, to say the least (as is my ridiculous bulging reference library – it’s pretty much gagging for a second or a even a third stand along website). Alas, we are not here to talk about my unhealthy hoarding obsession relating to design research. No sir. We are here to indulge in cool-town and extraordinary temporary timber structures.

Ok, but why such an obscure topic for an interior designer, Dana – I hear you ask? The answer is that I honestly do not know. BUT.

What I do know is that I find inspiration in a whole bunch of different places, and our Stories category in particular has always been there to aid in our collective personal and professional development, serving as a reference point for those moments when you need a killer resource for your next project, or simply a vehicle to loosen your tired minds and send you in an unlikely design direction that might just help you resolve that tricky wall panelling. Or a joinery structure. Or whatever. All because you looked at a random selection of Temporary Timber Structures. I know. It sounds completely weird, but trust me – this shit can totally work. Want to know how I know? Exactly. Through practice, dearest Yellowtracers. The proof is in the pudding. So eat it, I say. (Huh? Don’t worry, I sometimes don’t get what I mean either.)

p.s. I realise that a couple of the projects shown here are totally not temporary, but you know, you get that on big jobs. I simply though they were too good not to include. I hope all you hard-core temporary timber structure police-types can forgive me?

See More ‘Stories on Design’ Curated by Yellowtrace.

Photography by Alice Clancy.

Vessel by O’Donnell + Tuomey at Venice Architecture Biennale 2012 // This timber chamber by Irish architects O’Donnell + Tuomey stretched up like a funnel towards the roof of the Arsenale Corderie at the Venice Architecture Biennale. The rectangular holes between the columns and beams of the structure were reminiscent of timber moulds used to cast bricks. Exhibition visitors were able to climb inside the chamber through openings on each side, while light filtered in through another opening at the top.

Photography by Bas Princen.

Temporary Museum (Lake) by Studio Anne Holtrop // Wiggling back and forth across an Amsterdam nature reserve, this curved timber maze by Dutch architect Anne Holtrop was designed to stage an exhibition of landscape paintings. Made from untreated poplar, the Temporary Museum (Lake) had a lifespan of just six weeks.

Image courtesy of RCA.

Photo by Richard Wentworth.

Black Maria Temporary Performance Pavilion by GRUPPE // Black Maria is a temporary architectural construct that served as an event space, meeting point, spectacle and screening device at Central St. Martin Art School in London’s Kings Cross. The project formed pard of artist Richard Wentworth’s ongoing investigation into architecture and sculptural practice. Completed in 2013, this transformative structure functioned as a public social space during the day. In the evenings, doors were converted into screens and the stairs were reconfigured as seats, turning Black Maria into a space for discussions, screenings and performances.

Read the full article about this project & see more images here.

Photography © Kyungsub Shin.

Part to Whole by HG Architecture // Everything in nature is made up of components. They start from basic units such as atoms and molecules, and grow to bigger pieces like tissues and organs in order to construct a ‘live’ body. The artificial environment is quite the same. It all begins with simple terms like points and lines, and expand to create surfaces and ultimately form a space. Following this methodology and flow of repetition, HG-architecture designed ‘part to whole’, an installation that was placed within Korea’s national museum of modern and contemporary art.

The structure was composed of 9,076 timber modules that display the qualities of tectonics through weaving and stacking. Here, a set of circles moving along the curve constructs a continuous opening. The result is an effect referred to as ‘stippling’, a pattern created by varying degrees of solid and void.

Images courtesy of ICD + ITKE.

Research Pavilion by ICD + ITKE in Stuttgart, Germany // In summer of 2011, the Institute for Computational Design (ICD) and the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE), together with students at the University of Stuttgart realised a temporary, bionic research pavilion made of timber at the intersection of teaching and research. The project explored the architectural transfer of biological principles of the sea urchin’s plate skeleton morphology by means of novel computer-based design and simulation methods, along with computer-controlled manufacturing methods for its building implementation. A particular innovation consists in the possibility of effectively extending the recognised bionic principles and related performance to a range of different geometries through computational processes, which is demonstrated by the fact that the complex morphology of the pavilion could be built exclusively with extremely thin sheets of plywood (6.5 mm).

Photography by Jin Hyo-suk & Kim Yong-soon, courtesy of UTAA.

Rest Hole in the University of Seoul by UTAA // Korean architecture firm UTAA collaborated with three architecture students at the University of Seoul (Lee Sang-myeong, Ha Ki-seong & Baek Jong-ho) to spruce up a campus parking lot. The Rest Hole is created by timber ribs installed into a largely vacant and underutilised space that lay at the base of a University dorm.

The architects were saddled with task of transforming the dark and inefficient area into a warmer and inviting space conducive to relaxation and gatherings. Unsightly columns have been hidden behind a series of curvaceous wooden panels that fill out the vacancy beneath the dorm to form a rounded hall. The organic forms and tones of the timber womb stand in stark contrast to the drab rectilinearity of the surrounding buildings.

Images courtesy of Gartnerfuglen & Mariana de Delás.

Grooming Retreat by Gartnerfuglen + Mariana de Delásv // This little temporary structure makes my heart swell with sweetness and nostalgia. A timber platform rises up from a barley field in Mallorca, giving a young equestrian a space for contemplation and grooming before and after horse riding. Designed as a collaboration between Norwegian studio Gartnerfuglen and Spanish architect Mariana de Delás, the Grooming Retreat was the “dream” request of a woman who had recently moved back to her hometown in the south of the Spanish island. “She asked for a space for grooming, contemplation and delicacy,” explain the architects, who worked with makers from India, Russia and Canada, as well as their home countries to realise the structure.

Read the full article about this project & see more images here.

Photography by Shinkenchiku-sha.

Nest We Grow by College of Environmental Design UC Berkeley + Kengo Kuma & Associates // From the Japanese architectural firm of Kengo Kuma and a team of students at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design comes “Nest We Grow,” an elaborate timber community food hub recently constructed on the island of Hokkaido. The design, which took the top prize at a global university architecture competition last year, is a stunning showcase for timber construction. According to the designers, the structure’s timber frame “mimics the vertical spatial experience of a Japanese larch forest.” Practically, this translates into plenty of beams for hanging fish and produce and a central tea platform with a sunken fireplace.

Read the full article about this project & see more images here.

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Kronborg Grevsen.

Photo courtesy of Søren Aagaard.

Dome of Visions in Copenhagen by Kristoffer Tejlgaard & Benny Jepsen // Copenhagen’s ‘Dome of Visions’ Project is the experimental love sapling conceived by architects Kristoffer Tejlgaard and Benny Jepsen in collaboration with construction firm NCC. Intelligently playing on the contemporary greenhouse metaphor and inspired by the futurist ideals voiced by good ol’ ‘Bucky’ Fuller, the Dome acts like a monument on the edge of Copenhagen’s main canal, attracting unwitting design buffs, like myself, to a sexy piece of exo-skeleton. Whilst its transparent, scaly, polycarbonate shell, shields an array of terraces supporting a fragrant variety of plant life, cultural events and seminars; occasionally involving some guy walking a tight rope, who wouldn’t pass by, look in and think ‘what the …’?

Read the full article about this project & see more images here.

Images courtesy of Thilo Frank.

‘EKKO’ Spatial Installation by Thilo Frank // Visitors to this installation in northern Denmark by German artist Thilo Frank were invited to walk through a contorted loop of timber while listening to the sounds of their voices and footsteps played back to them. A circle of concrete paving created a continuous walkway, while 200 timber frames with incrementally different dimensions provided the twisted structure surrounding it. Microphones were hidden within the timber beams and record the sounds made by everyone that stepped inside. These sounds were continuously remixed by a computer and played back through tiny speakers to create a distorted echo.

Photography by Beth Zacherle and Studio Gang Architects.

Nature Boardwalk by Studio Gang Architects // This project transforms a picturesque urban pond from the 19th century into an ecological habitat buzzing with life. A pavilion integrated into the boardwalk sequence provides shelter for open-air classrooms on the site. Inspired by the tortoise shell, its laminated structure consists of prefabricated, bent-wood members and a series of interconnected fibreglass pods that give global curvature to the surface.

Photography by Daici Ano.

GC Prostho Museum Research Center by Kengo Kuma // This pavilion represents architecture that originates from the system of Cidori – an old Japanese toy. Cidori is an assembly of timber sticks with joints having unique shape, which can be extended merely by twisting the sticks, without any nails or metal fittings. The tradition of this toy has been passed on in Hida Takayama, a small town in a mountain, where many skilled craftsmen still exist.

See more projects from Kengo Kuma on Yellowtrace.

Photography by Alexander Tamargo.

Genesis by David Adjaye at Design Miami // Visitors to the 2011 Design Miami fair could climb into the hollow belly of a timber pavilion designed by architect David Adjaye. Adjaye was commissioned to create the installation after being named Designer of the Year by the festival. The temporary triangular structure was located at the fair’s entrance and comprised a framework of timber blocks slotted together. The central hollow punctured the pavilion on every side to create oval openings framing views of the surroundings and sky.

Photography © Ina Reinecke.

Thicket Pavilion in Berlin by Barkow Leibinger // Composed of bundles of carefully arranged stainless steel rods, the thicket pavilion study 2.0 is created by architect Barkow Leibinger. Located in Berlin, the original structure was erected as an installation for the ‘How Soon is Now’ exhibition and since then, the same concept has been turned into a pavilion offering a unique space for public encounter. The theme explores the boundaries between physical materiality and space-blurred by the structural system of the rods. The arrangement investigates a self-stabilising frame that can be used for defining space, roof support and an overall system that can be adapted to any size or varying material.

‘In this way the pavilion acts as a stage, a refuge, and a visually stimulating phenomenon. The intricate structure offers a myriad of visual effect including moiré, transparency, translucency and opacity triggered by movement through the spaces and by those who occupy it’, explain the architects.

Images courtesy of Digiwoodlab Project.

HILA Pavilion by Digiwoodlab Project + University Of Oulu Students // Designed and constructed by students of architecture at the University of Oulu, HILA pavilion was part of the summer workshop series at the University, in collaboration with the DigiWoodLab* project. HILA pavilion was a synthesis of a three dimensional wooden lattice structure (Hila in Finnish) and architecture, in which the rectangular base form is carved by a freeform inner void. The revealed wooden structure created a lace-like appearance inside the pavilion, which is amplified by the complex shadows it forms. The pavilion concept was designed in a four day workshop and constructed within five days.

Photography by Sina Maleki.

Khor I Temporary Theatre by TAAT // Visitors to this temporary theatre in the Netherlands designed by TAAT performed their own play by reading from timber cubes based on Buddhist prayer wheels. Named Khor I, the pavilion was constructed from slim timber batons arranged vertically to form overlapping pyramid shapes which vary on each side. According to the architect Breg Horemans, the structure was inspired by a walk through a bamboo forest.

Photo by Gunnar Holmstad.

SALT Festival Installations by Rintala Eggertsson Architects // SALT is centred round three architectural structures inspired by the fish rack, developed by Norwegian architects Rintala Eggertsson Architects between 2010 and 2014. The form of the project is derived from the traditional fish racks which are found along the North-Norwegian coastline and have for centuries been used for drying fish for stockfish production.

Photography © Ignacio Ysasi.

The Metropol Parasol in Seville, Spain by Jurgen Mayer H. Architects // Located at Plaza de la Encarnacion, the beautiful series of undulating parasols by Jurgen Mayer H. Architects comprise the world’s largest timber structure. Metropol’s interlocking honeycomb of timber panels rise from concrete bases, which are positioned to form canopies and walkways below the parasols. The actual site was originally slated to become a parking garage, but after excavations revealed archeological findings, the city of Seville decided to make the site a museum and a community center. Metropol Parasol now houses said museum, a farmers market, an elevated plaza, and a restaurant. The elevated rooftop promenades located on top of the parasols, offer visitors amazing views of the city.

Photography © James Dow, courtesy of Patkau Architects.

Winnipeg Skating Shelters by Patkau Architects // Canadian studio Patkau Architects designed a grouping of temporary shelters to provide ice-skaters with relief from the harsh winter winds. A cluster of organic, cone-like structures, each accommodating only a few people at a time, gather in the centre of the city where the Red and Assiniboine rivers converge. Standing with their backs to the wind, the units develop a series of protective environments and interior spaces that shield ice-skaters from the fierce winds and temperatures, which at times can feel like minus fifty degrees celsius. Brrrr!

Photography by Adrià Goula.

Endesa Pavilion by MARGEN LAB // ENDESA Pavilion is a self-sufficient solar prototype installed at the Marina Dock, within the framework of the International BCN Smart City Congress. Over a period of one year it was used as a control room for monitoring and testing several projects related to intelligent power management. A facade composed by modular components, like solar brick, that respond to photovoltaic gaining, solar protection, insulation, ventilation, lighting. The same parametric logic adapt façade geometries to the specific environmental requirements for each point of the building.

Photography by Mark Reigelman and Bob Perkoski.

The Reading Nest by Mark Reigelman // Using 10,000 reclaimed timber boards, New York-based artist Mark Reigelman designed a site specific installation outside of the Cleveland Public Library. The Reading Nest was a massive undertaking that was inspired by age-old objects that are often associated with knowledge and wisdom. The nest-like structure sits 35 feet wide and 12 feet high and allows visitors to interact with it.

Photo by Ahmad El Mad.

AntiRoom II: A Floating Island in the Maltese Sea // AntiRoom II is a conceptual design project in Malta; a ‘floating island’ accessible only by a lengthy swim or boat ride. The circular timber structure was designed and constructed by three architects, Elena Chiavi, Ahmad el Mad and Matteo Goldoni, along with a group of visiting European students as part of the EASA 2015 Links Workshop.

Read the full article about this project & see more images here.

Visibility (Imposed Modernity)’: Kosovo’s Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2014 // For the Republic of Kosovo the forms of modernity were the symbols of the authoritarianism of the regime, and have never been assimilated by the society. The installation shkëmbi tower, made by stacking 720 “shkëmbi”, a traditional stool which name also means rock, emphasises the recovering of memory as a necessary step toward Kosovo’s advancement. (P.S. I have pretty fkn strong personal and political views on this one, but I shall carry on graciously and bite my tongue in the name of design, k?)

Read the full article about this project & see more images here.

Kingdom of Bahrain Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2014 // The pavilion of the Kingdom of Bahrain presents a survey on the modern architectural models imposed to the Arab world by the European colonialism. From the Algiers master-plan to the Soviet Union influence on the urban transformations of Damascus, and the Deco architecture built with mud bricks in Baghdad; modern style architecture has been perceived as an alien element although somehow adapted to the local tradition models during the 1950s and 1970s.

Read the full article about this project & see more images here.