"In a renovation for the Beaver Country Day School, we designed a bent wood vault at the crossroads of the school's main entry and circulation corridor. The bent wood vault relates both formally and conceptually to a series of existing brick Guastavino vaults, located in the vestibule adjacent to the main entry.Using advanced 3d software and design computation, our design draws inspiration from the structural logic of the Gustavino vault to weave thin strips of mahogany plywood into a strong, yet porous structural shell. The elegant expression of woven wood members challenges conventional applications of industrially processed plywood, which is often used to resist bending and deformation. We aim for elegance in flat-to-form operations, using computation to achieve 3-D forms through precise bending operations. By using flat sheets of manufactured material, the design retains the affordability of more conventional construction techniques, while allowing for a transformative and dynamic formal intervention. As a compliment to the structural rigidity of the woven plywood members, the design achieves a formal "lightness" through softly filtered illumination."
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