The TWIST

Project Info

Sponsor: TRADA, Hanson Plywood

The TWIST was developed by the Emergent Technologies and Design Programme at the Architectural Association School of Architecture for Timber Expo 2015.

The project sought to exploit the anisotropic properties to gain full control of the bending and twisting behaviour of plywood. The system was primarily composed of two plywood strip elements: the ribs and the wings. The ribs were CNC-milled planar arcs that served a structural function while the wings were straight strips with the grain perpendicular to the length. These wings connected to the ribs at specific angles and distances in order to bend and twist. A sub-system of combs and the perpendiculars ran along the free edges of the articulated surface, locking the geometry in place computational techniques, based on the results of full-scale physical experiments, were used to generate the forms.