Week 8 : Timber as Building Material

I'm taking a subject called Design and Technology - Timber. This subject is to improve our knowledge and understanding of materials, structure and construction is essential to the design and procurement of successful architecture. These are the requirement according to the brief:

•  Development of a comprehensively detailed timber structure to fit within a narrow coastal strip in a heavily built-up region of Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
•  The project focuses on the conception and structural resolution of a series of clear-span timber platforms and associated timber buildings.
• The programmed requires the detailed design and documentation (in drawn and model form) of the significant primary and secondary structural systems employed in your architectural concept. 
• Timber is a very challenging material and this exercise requires a level of resolution much greater than that seen in most architectural studios, both the accommodation and material briefs are prescriptive.
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This is the final design of my timber deck, the structure design was inspired by the shape of tree called dendriform concept. The fractal skeleton of a tree diverges the heavy wind to lower the impact on its tree-body. The replication and adoption of the treelike patterns create a sense of connectivity between the architectural structure and the nature. 

The interests of responsible and sustainable resource use are applied in this project. The volumes of timber material used in this project should kept to a minimum while satisfying the structure's significant strength and serviceability requirements. The selection of timber species and their supply chains are important as well, because these able to affect the sustainability. 

The timber species used for this project are Tasmania Oak, Red Ironbark and Radiata Pine, which can easily found in Australia. Hence, transportation between the site and timber source would significantly reduce the environmental effect and cost of the project.

As an architecture student, I think that we able to make a difference to the environmental, by selecting specific sustainable materials or the design that we propose, able to reduce the usage of material.