V&A invites UK housebuilders to go forth and Multiply
September 14 2018
The V&A London may find itself temporarily usurped by the limelight afforded to its upstart Dundonian counterpart but will nevertheless be making waves of its own this weekend with a nine-metre high wooden pavilion built from American tulipwood.
MultiPly has been conceived by Waugh Thistleton Architects in collaboration with the American Hardwood Export Council and ARUP to demonstrate the suitability of modular cross-laminated construction as a carbon neutral solution to Britain’s housing crisis.
Manufactured by the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre it is the first structure to be built in the UK using British manufactured CLT, creating a complex stack of intertwined and overlapping stairs, corridors and spaces that together provide inquisitive visitors with a labyrinthine playground to explore.
Consisting of 17 individual modules connected by digitally fabricated joints, the pavilion can be transported in flat-pack form before being slotted together on-site, a technique which its creators believe can be scaled up to build some of the estimated 250,000 homes needed in the UK each year to meet demand.
Andrew Waugh, co-founder of Waugh Thistleton Architects remarked: “The main ambition of this project is to publicly debate how environmental challenges can be addressed through innovative, affordable construction.
“We are at a crisis point in terms of both housing and CO2 emissions and we believe that building in a versatile, sustainable material, such as tulipwood, is an important way of addressing these issues.”
The installation opens to the public tomorrow in Sackler Courtyard where it will remain until October.
An evening lighting strategy transforms the three dimensional playground into a place of quiet contemplation
It is calculated that the 43m3 of tulipwood used store the equivalent of 30 tonnes of carbon dioxide
Sustainable timber has been sourced from rapidly expanding forests in the eastern US
The pavilion was quietly assembled in under a week
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I don't get invited out much any more.