Timber iQ December 2018 - January 2019 // Issue: 41 | Page 20

PROJECTS
MultiPly is a carbon-neutral American tulipwood pavilion launched at the London Design Festival in 2018.
The magnificent MultiPly
Meet MultiPly, a sustainable tulipwood darling of groundbreaking
three-dimensional proportions.
By Candace Sofianos King | Photos by Ed Reeve
T
imber finds itself at a socio and environmental turning
point with MultiPly, a carbon-neutral American
tulipwood pavilion recently launched at the London
Design Festival this year. The nine-metre high wooden
pavilion made entirely of tulipwood opened to the public in
the Sackler Courtyard of the V&A in the world’s design
capital on 15 September and remained there until
1 October.
Conceived by an ingenious team up between research-
oriented practice Waugh Thistleton Architects, the American
Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) and built environment
professionals Arup, MultiPly illustrates how modular
cross-laminated construction in hardwood is a viable
solution to the current housing crisis. The project boasts
eco-warrior status as the 43m 3 of tulipwood that makes up
MultiPly stores the equivalent of 30t of carbon dioxide and
is replaced with natural growth in the American hardwood
forest in just five minutes.
18 DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019 //
As a landmark project of the much-celebrated London
Design Festival, the construction of the three-dimensional
structure ushers in visitors and encourages them to re-think
the way we design and build our homes and cities. Like a
wooden wonderland, MultiPly is comprised of a maze-like
series of interconnected spaces that overlap and intertwine.
AN INTIMATE MEANDER THROUGH MULTIPLY
Like a piece of flat-pack furniture, the pavilion arrived as a
kit of parts and was quietly and efficiently assembled in
under a week. Built out of a flexible system, made of 17
modules of American tulipwood cross laminated timber
(CLT), with digitally fabricated joints, the striking structure is
made with the first UK-manufactured CLT panels. At the
crown of the structure is a module with a thermo-treated
tulipwood interior layer – the first time thermally modified
timber (TMT) has been incorporated as a protective layer
in CLT.
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