Wood Chip Barn

Hooke, United Kingdom

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Wood Chip Barn

Hooke, United Kingdom

Firm

Design + Make

Type

Educational › University
Industrial › Warehouse Farm

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2016

SIZE

1000 sqft - 3000 sqft

BUDGET

Undisclosed

Photos

Valerie Bennett (2)

A robotically fabricated barn to provide long-term storage for wood chip to fuel the Biomass Boiler House. With a storage capacity of 400m3, the barn will enable the Hooke Park estate to process and use it’s own timber for renewable heat production. The barn’s arching structure - the ‘Tree Fork Truss’ – is made up of 20 distinct beech forks directly sourced from the surrounding woodland. The inherent form and structural capacity of the natural tree is transferred and exploited.

Having surveyed Hooke Park’s beech compartments, a database of potential forked components was established, and from it, the structural concept was developed. Based on the criteria of this structure, 25 forks were harvested from the forest, brought back to the campus and scanned in 3D. An organization script was used to generate a final arrangement of forks in collaboration with engineers from Arup. This digital model was then translated into fabrication information with which Hooke Park’s new robotic arm transformed each fork into a finished component. After being pre-assembled in Hooke Park’s Big Shed, the building’s pieces were assembled on site.

Students: Zachary Mollica, Swetha Vegesana, Sahil Shah, Vivian Yang, Mohaimeen Islam

Tutors: Martin Self, Emmanuel Vercruysse, Charley Brentnall, Toby Burgess

With: Jack Draper (Project Coordination), Pradeep Devadass (Robotic Developer), Charlie Corrywright (Workshop Manager)