SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS FOR BESPOKE ACOUSTIC DIFFUSER DESIGN
A considerable amount of construction and wood waste is generated each year, mostly landfilled or burned for energy, contributing to severe environmental effects. The management of this waste is a significant challenge as it is often not suitable for secondary use. In this context, the circular economy concept is a solution as it comprises waste minimisation and efficient recovery of resources. Various projects explore the use of waste wood in their design processes but extracting the wood’s inherent physical properties and integrating it into a performance driven design remains difficult.
Wood has been used for centuries for its acoustic properties as it is a natural resonating material that can be shaped into a big variety of forms. But acoustics are rarely included as a design driver in the early phases of design due to the multi-faceted nature of sound and the complex and time-consuming analysis process of room acoustics software. Inevitably this results in architectural spaces with poor acoustics, where treatment is either disregarded or focuses only on noise prevention using absorbent materials. However, most commonly wood waste materials have sound reflecting properties and can be configured into sound-diffusive surfaces.
Furthermore the non-standardized nature of waste wood makes it difficult to integrate into bespoke design solutions. The material will often need further processing to make it suitable for secondary usage.
This dissertation presents a new bottom up data driven design approach to designing and evaluating the acoustic properties of architectural surfaces using wood waste. It investigates the use of scanning workflows, creating a digital library of the collected material, to the integration of parametric tools, to enable an iterative design process paired to the acoustic evaluation of bespoke acoustic surfaces. This framework caters to non-expert users in acoustics, who want to taper further into the possibilities of integrating wood waste into performative bespoke design. It provides users with easy and fast descriptors and visualisations that help them integrate acoustical assessment into their early design decisions.
SCANNING AND DATABASE
ACOUSTIC EVALUATION
DESIGN
ROBOTIC FABRICATION
