For the third consecutive year, the London Design Festival will run a broad ranging programme of activity in residence at the Victoria & Albert Museum in west London. This year, in collaboration with the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) and Arup, award-winning architect Amanda Levete from AL_A has designed a dramatic ‘Timber Wave’ installation in American red oak which will grace the V&A’s Grand Entrance for the duration of London Design Festival in September.

With the final details of the complicated and challenging design for the 12 metre diameter ‘Timber Wave’ complete and all the necessary structural calculations confirmed by project engineers, Arup, the donated red oak lumber has arrived in the UK and production of the curved components by Cowley Timberwork has begun.

On 20th June, Cowley Timberwork received a container filled with the red oak boards contributed by eight different AHEC members: Bingaman & Son Lumber, Fitzpatrick & Weller, Frank Miller Lumber, Pike Lumber, Coulee Region Hardwoods, Northland Forest Products, Hermitage Hardwood Lumber Sales and Matson Lumber. Since then, the timber has been processed from 25mm thick random width boards, down to form laminates, the foundation components for creating the shape of the ‘wave’. Peter Hogg, managing director, Cowley Timberwork describes their current processes. He said, “The undulating curved chords of ‘Timber ‘Wave’ uses 7mm thick red oak laminates, and on average there are 11 laminates per chord component which vary in depth from 60mm deep to 120mm. The braces which run across the wave linking the chords are formed in a slightly different way, with three 20mm thick laminates pressed into a flat panel then profile curve cut on CNC router machine.”

As with every project, time, efficiency and cost are important, and the decisions on manufacturing processes were made early on. Peter continued, “It’s all been very successful so far. We are on track with three-quarters of the laminating for the chord components complete and we start pressing the laminates for CNC curve cutting for the braces this week.”
1,600 laminates will be required to form all the chord components, which will create 77 chords, running from left to right from the ground, up into the curve and back again, creating the shape of the wave. 460 braces will need to be formed from the three laminate CNC curve cut flat panels.

AHEC is working closely with the London Design Festival, AL_A, Arup and the Victoria & Albert Museum to put an ambitious publicity programme in place to build on nearly a hundred news articles already published in printed and online media. AHEC is also creating a special publication about the project and a short film to capture the process and construction.

David Venables, European director for AHEC said, “Cowley Timberwork has been invaluable in helping us realise ‘Timber Wave’ and it is tremendously exciting to actually see it in production. ‘Timber Wave’ is the latest in a collection of installations we have supported and driven in order to demonstrate the performance, aesthetic and enduring qualities of American hardwood, and this red oak structure is set to be a standout installation of the LDF programme.”
The London Design Festival takes place from 17th to 25th September across London.
 

American Hardwood Export Council
The American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) is the leading international trade association for the US hardwood industry, representing the committed exporters among US hardwood companies and all the major US hardwood production trade associations. AHEC concentrates its efforts on providing architects, designers and end-users with technical information on the range of species, products and sources of supply.

Website: www.americanhardwood.org