In June 2014, Pedro de Azambuja Varela (Portugal) and Tim Merritt (USA/Denmark) conducted a 2 week workshop with 35 Architecture students focused on learning digital tools of fabrication including CAD (Rhino), Parametric modeling (Grasshopper), and other tools for Digital Stereotomy including a 5-axis waterjet cutter and large format laser cutter.  Many design experiments were conducted including the final 1:1 scale vault made from expanded cork agglomerate.

Merritt, T., Varela, P. de A., Designing and building the cork vault: Reflections on a two-week digital fabrication workshop. Accepted for publication in Proceedings of DesignEd Asia Conference, Hong Kong, 2014.

plywood vault prototypes

small scale cork vault prototype

centering visible during construction of 1:1 scale cork vault

This project was featured by DOMUS on November 7, 2014