The focus of the transdisciplinary research training group TETHOK - Textile Tectonics for Wood Construction is the design of textile architectures based on continuous solid wood fibers. The concept behind our research is that solid wood, in the form of a continuous fiber, can be joined together in an additive textile process to build novel structural forms in a controlled way. We hypothesize that wood-based structural components produced in this way will have an exceptionally high and highly controllable “resolution,” with a fiber configuration that can be specified directly, opening up structural and creative possibilities previously unimagined in wood construction, and resulting in unprecedentedly streamlined, material-efficient, and functional designs. The advantages of such additively assembled textile structures and composites include their excellent suitability for light construction, thanks to the controllability of the material’s characteristics; their great versatility of form and function; their use of refined and tested manufacturing and processing technologies; and a characteristic, ever-changing, deeply familiar aesthetic of parallel and crossing threads. The primary questions facing the group are how textile processes can be used to build and assemble structural components from wood fibers, and how the resulting textile architectures can be designed, constructed, modeled, simulated, made functional, and manufactured as complete units for use in wood construction. The research is focusing on the opportunities and potentials as well as the limitations of this new class of wood textile materials, and on how these materials are best suited in form and function for use in architecture and the construction industry.
Research Partner
- Prof. Heike Klussmann - Bildende Kunst (opens in a new window)
- Prof. Stefan Böhm - TTF Kassel (opens in a new window)
- Prof. Julian Lienhard - Tragwerksentwurf (opens in a new window)
- Prof. Hans-Peter Heim - Werkstofftechnik (opens in a new window)
- Prof. Detlef Kuhl - Baustatik und Baudynamik (opens in a new window)
- Prof. Werner Seim - Bauwerkserhaltung und Holzbau (opens in a new window)