Winners of TIMBER New England Design + Fabrication competition

The winners for the TIMBER New England Design + Fabrication competition were recently announced on TIMBER's website. Entrants had to propose a site specific installation inspired by traditional New England building and crafting, using engineered lumber or heavy timber. Each winning team will be paired with an architectural firm, a structural engineer, and a material supplier—and $7,500—to have their proposals realized at the URBAN TIMBER exhibit at BSA Space, opening in February 2014.

Here are the winning projects and teams:
Four Corners by Ultramoderne
Coopered Column by Timothy Olson
Duck-Work by Sean Gaffney and Christina Nguyen
M2X3 by Gen Y Design Collaborative / Jeffery Lee, Christopher Taurasi and Lexi White

The mentoring firms who will help the winners develop their project installations are: NADAAA (Boston), Anmahian Winton Architects (Cambridge), Gray Organschi Architecture (New Haven), and Waugh Thistleton Architects (London).

See the winning projects below.

"Four Corners reimagines the timber bent as a three-dimensional construct, unfolding through space and developing unexpected forms and relationships. Using cross-laminated timber (CLT) in conjunction with the gable-ended form, it forges a new archetype of space and structure for a transformed technology. Rather than reproduce the gabled bent, which with CLT would produce a weak form, a series of structurally rigid corners of complementary proportion are cut from a barn-shaped primitive and reassembled into a cantilevering column-assemblage. Through recombination, arraying, and stacking, a varied and unexpected labyrinth arises..."

More info here.

"The Coopered Column proposal postulates that large scale structural columns in future tall wooden buildings could be designed to provide unique spatial and sculptural architectural effects. The Coopered Column derives its name from a wooden barrel construction technique, where outward thrusting members are held in compression by a circular metal tension band in tension [...] This installation manipulates the relationship between timber and cooper to create a sculptural artifact."

More info here.

"Duck-Work combines 2 construction tools from New England’s wood based building tradition: spline weights (ducks) and form ties. Ducks are used to draft curved timber elements in shipbuilding and form ties hold plywood formwork together when pouring vertical concrete elements. Both hold a surface in place by positioning themselves perpendicularly to it. Using this strategy, Duck-Work reconstructs the ubiquitous wooden floor to form a new ground for the gallery."

More info here.

"M2X3 is derived from the Roman numeral marriage marks scribed in corresponding pieces of lumber centuries ago during traditional New England timber-frame assembly. MMXXX (2030) is the year the world’s population will shift to majority urban dwellers. Recognizing New England’s traditional wood-building vernacular while exploring the potential of contemporary engineered lumber, M2X3 seeks to craft a new tectonic system of wood joinery for application in urban midrise construction."

More info here.

 

Click here for more details or download the competition brief.
Also, click the thumbnails to see projects from the Timber Mentors.