Future Fields - Willow Weave
2022 - 2023
The collaborative research project WILLOW WEAVE investigated digitally prefabricated earth-willow-wood hybrid ceiling components with the aim of expanding and diversifying the range of regrowing and recyclable building materials through digital design and fabrication methods.
The integrative co-design process of a 1:1 scale construction component involved six professorships at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and promoted coordinated innovations in the fields of digital design and fabrication, sustainable construction, building construction, structural design, timber engineering and life cycle assessment.
Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Ministry of Science, Research and Arts Baden-Württemberg as part of the Excellence Strategy of the Federal and State Governments, the KIT Future Fields Stage 2 project WILLOW WEAVE contributes to the strategic development of the future-oriented and socially highly relevant research field of Digital Circular Construction at KIT.
The underlying digital prefabrication technology emerged from a series of interdisciplinary research projects pioneering willow reinforced clay as a natural composite of clay as compression bearing infinitely recyclable material in synergy with willow as fast regrowing tension reinforcement for structural building components. Its application as horizontally spanning ceiling component expands the traditional compression-based design and construction repertoire of earth structures and allows for a scalable and societally relevant contribution towards a digitally enabled sustainable transformation of the construction industry.
