06.07.2020 Kaiserslautern. This week, students of the DTC seminar “Pinjarra Hills Canopy” – in Cooperation with Dr. Joe Gattas and Kim Baber from the University of Queensland Australia (UQ) – presented their group projects. The team at UQ is researching connectors for structures made from peeler cores (round wood), which is currently regarded a waste material from the plywood production. However, these relatively short round wood elements are strong and could be used as a cheap and sustainable building material.
In the summer semester of 2020, a team of DTC students developed seven experimental designs using these connectors. One of the designs is planned to be realized during a collaborative workshop in Brisbane.
The on-site workshop was originally planned for August 2020, which has been postponed due to the COVID19 pandemic. However, thanks to video conferencing technology, the international team was still able to jointly prepare the concepts, which will be further developed and built in the near future.
For the connection of the peeler cores, most of the teams focused on the flat, 2-dimensional joints which are relatively cheap and simple in their fabrication. 3-dimensional structures are enabled through a rotation of the joints around the peeler core axes.
Other teams developed modifications and new types of joints for round wood elements, which as well has a great potential in order to tap into the unused but valuable ressource of engineered wood production waste, such as peeler cores.
We are looking forward to continue this exciting collaboration in 2021. Many thanks to our friends, project partners and guest critics from the University of Queensland: Kim Baber, Dr. Joe Gattas and Aurimas Bukauskas, as well as Benedikt Blumenröder from TU Kaiserslautern for assisting the seminar.
Student Teams: Team 1: Lisa-Marie Höfer, Artur Avanesjan, Jörg Wagner; Team 2: Irida Xanthou, Loiy Qwasmi, JV Neklapil, Isabella Le, Anna Stephani; Team 3: Steven Becker, Celine Brinkmann, Janina Gauf, Katharina Prüfer, Celine Lahaye; Team 4: Linda Ringeisen, Mareike Lorch, Rozelin Güner, Antje Ollhoff, Selina Burgun, Johanna Huber; Team 5: Philippe Schertz, Nils Schilling, Gil Cruz; Team 6: Philipp Latzko, Fayuan Wang, Pascal Lange, Dario Smigulan, Luca Michels; Team 7: Ernst-Markus Rauska, Corinna Kollert, Tom Eicker, Massimiliano Puma, Jakob Schulze