The Mille-feuille Pavilion is a robotically fabricated plywood pavilion that was built as part of a workshop hosted by the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA) and the Centre for Advanced Wood Processing (CAWP), which took place from June 4-8, 2022. The workshop was led by Associate Professor David Correa of the University of Waterloo, Oliver David Krieg of Intelligent City, and Associate Professor AnnaLisa Meyboom from UBC SALA.
The free-standing structure is a multi-layered plywood assembly that relies solely on precise wood-to-wood joinery; 150 unique wood planks are connected by 43 webs – no screws or nails were used. Rather than using straight, pre-cut sections, the pavilion investigates the limits of elastically bent plywood to create a free-form and light-weight, self-supporting structure. The design pushes each component to bend to its limit, when the curvature asks for a tighter radius than the wood can accomplish, a pattern of lamination begins. The resulting design celebrates the formal potential of the curved plywood while building sectional depth through the mille-feuille like assembly of multiple layers.
Design & Development
David Correa
University of Waterloo, LLLab – Design Laboratory.
Oliver David Krieg
Intelligent City, odk.design:
AnnaLisa Meyboom
UBC SALA:
UBC Project Leads
Jason Chiu, Brandon Chan, Claudia Ediger, Lief Eriksen
UBC Centre for Advanced Wood Processing
Teaching Assistants: Julieta Alva, Maverick Chan, Angela Gmeinweser, Parastoo Varshosaz
Built by student participants: Kenneth Anggara, Nora Boone, Meena Chowdhury, Adrian Chiu, Sarah Garland, Marina Ibrahim, David Kalman, Nicholas Krahn, Sahar Kazemeini, Yuxiang Liu, Isabelle Luisser, Aïden Mézidor, Lorena Polovina, Sarah Pitoscia, Changwei Qiu, Esraa Saad, Tyler Solu, Piero Sovrani, Jay Starnino, Carissa Tzeng
Industry participants: Marc-Antoine Chartier-Primeau – 3XN Architects / GXN Innovation, Jesse Cotey, Kurt Drachenberg – Fast + Epp structural engineering, Dave Dunn – BCIT, Tobias Fast – Fast + Epp structural engineering, Eytan Fiszman – Fast + Epp structural engineering, Michael Frazier – Christine Lintott Architects Inc., Ben Hayward, Greg Hoffart – Tree Construction Inc., Alan Hung, Ainsley Jackson, Breena Jackson – BCIT, Danny Jacobsen – Fast + Epp structural engineering, Katherine Kovalcik – MGA | Michael Green Architecture, Nazlee Markowsky – studioHuB architects, Sebastien Sarrazin – Perkins & Will, Esaly Wu, Billy Ying Wai Ma, Dazhong Yi – IBI Group
Funding:
Forest Industry Innovation
Support:
UBC School of Architecture & Landscape Architecture
UBC Faculty of Forestry
UBC Campus & Community Planning
Film Production
Shabaan Khokhar
Related Publications:
Correa, D., Meyboom, A. and Krieg, O. D. (2023) ‘Make, Build, Repeat’, Canadian Interiors, February, 2023, pp. 32–33 [Online]. Available at https://issuu.com/iqbusinessmedia/docs/ci_jf_23_de/32.
david-correa.com 