CFPR/SAE Cob Comp!

Using manufacturing techniques developed by Dr Tavs Jorgensen at the Centre for Print Research, students of architecture from The School of Architecture & Environment participated in an Ideas Competition to explore extruded cob brick manufacture. Teams from the undergraduate Architecture, Architecture & Planning, Architecture & Environmental Engineering, and post-graduate Computational Architecture degrees collaborated on the design of small-scale shelters for a 2-person conversation, in a structure made from extruded bricks made from mud and straw. Each team developed their own proposal both for the brick components and the shelter it would form and prototyped these components in the architecture studio workshops. The competition was supported by Dr Nick Drofiak, Dr Simon Hatherley and James Burch from the School of Architecture & Environment.

The aim of the competition was to explore the potential of extruded cob building with a view to the future construction of an experimental prototype building that would test this material. Three teams exceeded this brief – developing both inventive cob components and persuasive possibilities for their assembly. These First Prize winners were Jayson Tiah and Michael Cai, proposing a T-shaped tessellation that could turn corners efficiently achieving a robust construction; Salma Magzoub, Rohan Phang and Mohamed Kabbaj proposing a binary jointed system that could be combined with small-bore timber to create an airy wall structure with a lightweight roof; and Ben Starling developing an interlocking S-shaped component that forms sinuous curved walls. First Year students Grace Kennedy, James Laird, Toni Amato, and Nina Shoulder were Highly Commended for the subtle privacy thresholds their shelter created, along with MSc Computational Architecture student Ben Irons for his parametric generation of a cob-built form.

Dr Tavs Jorgensen in planning to present examples of this competition work at the Clayfest Earth building Conference in July.

via CATE news