Parametric Design of Timber Shell Structures

Increasingly complex architectural geometries present new challenges for structural engineers. By exploring a co-rationalized design process in collaboration with architecture students here at UBC, issues concerning material properties, detailing, fabrication, and assembly are identified early. They are then integrated into the architectural model as generative concepts for the design, modeling, fabrication, and assembly of free-form solid timber shells structures using Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) panels. The role of structural engineer takes an active rather than reactionary role in the preliminary design stages. This talk will also describe the specifically structural research concerns which arose from the broader investigation, namely the flexural properties of curved or cross-grained CLT.

Alexandra Cheng is a graduate student and research assistant at the University of British Columbia. She earned a B.S. Civil Engineering and B.A. Painting from the University of Colorado Denver (2012) and graduated from UBC last Thursday with a Master of Applied Science in Structural Engineering.