Materials Lab Investigation: Plyboo Shutters

UNIVERSITY CO-OP

Materials Lab Plyboo 3.108 Shutters

About: The folding bamboo plywood screen, now featured at WMB 3.108, serves many utilitarian functions: door, wall, and signage. Apart from utility, the material and fabrication methodology was deliberately chosen to serve a conceptual and academic purpose: to reveal the true volumetric property of a “flat” panel material. Fourteen 2’ x 8’ laminated Teragren bamboo plywood panels make up the shutter system. They are hinged in twos with Soss invisible hinges to allow for selective enclosure. The panels are both face and end CNC routed using simple 2-D profile routing to let the 140-degree V-groove bit produce the 3-D results. The face routing follows a grasshopper pattern designed to respond to the end grain classroom letters. In addition, the routed pattern re-emphasizes the laminated nature of the system by revealing the cross-grain of the interior bamboo veneer sheets. The final bamboo plywood assembly provides a graphic identity and material presence to WMB 3.108, an otherwise nondescript interior classroom.

Designed and fabricated by Sydney Mainster, director of the Materials Lab (2010 - 2013) and Travis Cook (M.Arch, 2012). Completed 2013.

CNC routed pattern, as viewed from inside classroom WMB 3.108

CNC routed pattern, as viewed from outside the classroom