d-WEB: Distorting the archetypical roof

Interweaving threads that form a web characterize d-WEB prototype conceived and built in the Contemporary Architecture course with a group of students, the professor and the help of two carpenters from the school’s wood shop. It seeks to expand connections and capture the contact between students and users of the campus in an integrated and dynamic way. Whether in motion or at rest on the object, new experiences are transmitted, stimulating sensations and reflections, which, in the daily routine, can often go unnoticed.

The prototype had to be built in 3.5 days with a very low budget resulting from a grant sponsored by the university’s publishing company. The digital design process made use of the sectioning technique, departing from the traditional double-sloped house archetype which was progressively distorted. Replacing the straw and ceramic-tiled roofs in the NE of Brazil, the building skin converted into a web of plastic tubes, commonly used in certain vernacular chairs which are popular in the region.

The construction rational relied on linear pieces of pine timber that shaped the cross-trusses and the framing for the base, later infilled with naval plywood planks that were finished with a black paint coating. Words that symbolized d-WEB were imprinted over the base.

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