Client: Xylotek Advanced Timber StructuresArchitect: Invisible Studio & Xylotek with the Westonbirt CommunityLocation: Westonbirt Arboretum, UK
Date: 2022-05-17 00:00:00 +0000 UTCTags: Timber, Shelter, Community
Westonbirt Community Shelter
Westonbirt Community Shelter was designed by Piers Taylor of Invisible Studio with Xylotek and members of the Westonbirt Community Programme. The project was created to be a collaborative effort involving the various community groups from design through to final production. There are many stories emerging from the build, some of which can be found at the community shelter webpage here
Format joined the project during RIBA 3 to assist with taking the geometry proposed by the community and developing it into something buildable while keeping the original spirit of the design. The original design and model used elastically bent thin timber to form the arches. However the thickness of timber required at full scale meant that this could not be elastically bent to the curvatures required along the ridge line and would need to be steam-bent instead. Through modelling of the locked-in stresses in our K2E solver we were able to minimise the steam-bent zone and keep the outer sections of the arches as elastically-bent as per the original plan.
The structure is formed from oak felled and sawn on the Westonbirt site with aluminium panels reclaimed from old Westonbirt Signage and shingles formed from a mix of local oak and red cedar.
The overall client for the project was Westonbirt Arboretum and Forestry England .
Photo 7 ©Invisible Studio
Project Video:
'The Community Shelter at Westonbirt, The National Arboretum' © Stephenson&