LIGHT WOOD HEXAGON TREE COLUMNS By Jake Okrent (COMP Partner

1) Project Description

2A)

System

The following structural system utilizes the easy construction and compressive strength of light wood to compose a tree-column in a hexagonal grid. Branches of the column feed loads distributed across the supported floor back into the column at greater spans. Branches from the grid slot into light wood composite cross columns to provide a connection detail which simplifies construction and enhances the lightness of the space. The form created by the hexagonal grid has technical and experiential utility; The thickness of the floor plate and supporting structure could resolve MEP placement, and ceiling treatments such as drop downs and skylights could fill grid cavities.

2B) Structural System Description

The hexagonally gridded branches of the columns act in tandem with the primary support structure to transfer load from the supported floors. This allows for 2x8 joists with shorter spans from column-to-branches-to-column than from column-to-column. Joists continue across bays up until the perpendicular joist of the following bay.

Sources:

1. Allen, Edward, and Joseph Iano. The Architects Studio Companion : Rules of Thumb for Preliminary Design. 2002. New York, John Wiley & Sons Inc, 5 Jan. 2012, p. 61 & 67.

2. Circular Ecology. “Embodied Carbon Footprint Database.” Circular Ecology, 10 Nov. 2019, circularecology.com/embodied-carbon-footprint-database.html.

3. Seely, Oliver. “PHYSICAL PROPERTIES of COMMON WOODS.”

Www2.Csudh.edu, www2.csudh.edu/oliver/chemdata/woods.htm.

BRANCHES

HEX GRID

FLOOR JOISTS ( )

FLOOR JOISTS ( = )

3B) Embodied Carbon

Module Floor Area: 21.3 m

4) Benchmarking

Secondary Vertical Spruce 2x4 hexagonal grid and column branches

Primary Vertical: Spruce cross column with 12” square profile (See figure 1)

Primary Horizontal Spruce 2x8 floor joists arranged 24” oc (See Figure 2) Floor