Danish architecture studio BIG, alongside faculty at the University of Kansas, has unveiled its design for the mass-timber Makers' KUbe in Kansas, USA.
The structure will serve as an educational building for the University of Kansas (KU) School of Architecture & Design in Lawrence, Kansas. BIG's design was chosen as part of an open call, based on the "needs and wishes" of the students and faculty.
The 50,000-square-foot educational building will have a diagrid structure made completely from wood, a feat achieved through the use of notched glued laminated timber (glulam) and dowels based on traditional Japanese joinery techniques to eliminate the need for steel fasteners or plates.
BIG's Makers' KUbe will be located in a square among buildings at the University of Kansas "Our design for the consolidated design studios at KU seeks to deploy all aspects of the profession in three distinct interventions: preservation, adaptation and new construction," said BIG founder Bjarke Ingels.
"The Makers' KUbe is conceived as a showcase in timber tectonics, traditional joinery, robotic manufacturing and sustainable materials."
The building will have six storeys and be placed in a plaza surrounded by pre-existing structures, with bridges on its second level connecting it on two sides to the adjacent Chalmers and Marvin Halls.
It will have an all wood structure
It will have chamfered edges on all of the corners, creating entrance canopies on the ground flo...