ETH students create innovative bamboo pavilion
Students at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) have developed a filigree yet stable pavilion made of bamboo. The latest technologies were used for design and construction. Connecting pieces and shading elements were created using 3D printing.
Students in the master’s course in Advanced Studies in Architecture and Digital Fabrication at ETH have created a bamboo pavilion weighing just 200 kilograms and 40 square meters, the ETH informs in a message . For the design of the innovative pavilion, its creators developed their own digital design tools. In addition to the renewable raw material bamboo, recyclable plastic was also used in the production. All connecting pieces and shading elements were created using 3D printing.
"The building system developed for this project aims to reduce the logistical effort of building and at the same time to use the advantages of digital production for a more sustainable building culture", Marirena Kladeftira, doctoral student at the Professorship of Digital Building Technologies at ETH, is quoted in the communication . Despite their complicated geometry and their high tolerance requirements, the tailor-made connection pieces can be 3D printed anywhere in the world due to their small size, explains the ETH. The shading elements made of recyclable plastic and Lycra textile can also be produced using 3D printing.
“This construction method could therefore be used wherever bamboo is available and should be built inexpensively,” writes the ETH. In addition, the modular structure allows the building to be assembled and dismantled quickly. The students' bamboo pavilion was set up in Zurich within 48 hours and dismantled again in the same period of time.