Carbon-Neutral Design: MultiPly Pavilion

WORDS Lilly Quin

MultiPly is a nine-metre-high carbon-neutral tulipwood pavilion that was recently displayed in the V&A’s Sackler Courtyard at the London Design Festival.

The wooden pavilion is one the festival’s Landmark Projects and aims to encourage visitors to consider the ways in which buildings are designed and built.

The innovative installation was created through a collaboration between the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), Waugh Thistleton Architects and ARUP. MultiPly utilises cross-laminating, a wood engineering technique that enhances weight bearing and strength.

The tulipwood used to create MultiPly can store the equivalent of 30 tonnes of carbon dioxide and can be replaced in the American hardwood forest in just five minutes.

“The main ambition of this project is to publicly debate how environmental challenges can be addressed through innovative, affordable construction,” says Andrew Waugh, co-founder of Waugh Thistleton Architects. “We are at a crisis point in terms of both housing and CO2 emissions and we believe that building in a versatile, sustainable material, such as tulipwood, is an important way of addressing these issues.”

The three-dimensional pavilion has a maze-like structure and is constructed using 17 modules of tulipwood. The pavilion has digitally fabricated joints, with the crown of the structure comprising of a module that has a thermo-treated protective layer. The use of tulipwood enhances the design, as it is both eco-friendly and inexpensive.

See more projects by Waugh Thistleton Architects, here.