London
E9
United Kingdom
Overview
MultiPly is an interactive exhibition currently on show in the courtyard of the V&A museum in London for the London Design Festival. A collaboration between the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), Arup Engineering and Waugh Thistleton Architects, the project aims to showcase the engineered timber product Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT), to the European market.
Previously collaborating on a similar project The Smile, the new CLT project MultiPly aims to further the research into the groundbreaking qualities of CLT in the construction industry, this time showcasing the modular production process, market application, and cost efficiency.
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Structure
The CLT comprises American tulipwood layers oriented at right angles to each other to produce an engineered product much stronger than normal timber. The thin ‘plys’ are ordered in odd numbers, usually of 3, 5, 7 or 9 layers, with alternating grain directions. Engineered wood products are generally made from softwoods, but this project aims to showcase the structural potential of engineered hardwoods.
The benefit of engineered timber products is the ability to utilise lower grade timbers, which lowers the cost, without compromising the integrity of its structural performance. The structure locks in 30 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, completely offsetting its production emissions and generally achieving a carbon positive result. This means the material locks in more carbon dioxide than is produced during the process of making it. Materials like this, with low embodied energy, could help to lower carbon emissions in the construction industry.
Through 20 years of research and development into the structural potential of American hardwoods, Arup has used the structural quality of American tulipwood for its high strength to weight ratio.
Arup’s timber specialist Andrew Lawrence says Multiply “showcases the ability for Tulipwood CLT to be the structural foundations for multi-level buildings.” Hardwood CLT allows for much slimmer panels than softwood, and can offer an improved appearance for exposed panels.
Lead architect Andrew Waugh of Waugh Thistleton says the project aim to “create debate around how environmental challenges don’t have to be addressed at the expense of innovation and affordability.” Waugh appreciates the precise nature of pre-fabricating CLT off site, to produce a building that accurately represents what is documented, unlike concrete and steel construction which is notoriously imprecise.
American Tulipwood is one of the most abundant hardwoods in the USA and consequently is one of the most sustainably grown.
