MULTIPLY_ Waugh Thistleton

Multiply is a nine-meter-high installation built from cross-laminated timber, on show at the V&A during London Design Festival, to demonstrate the potential of carbon-neutral buildings. London-based architecture studio Waugh Thistleton, that designed the installation, has experience in delivering a wide range of building types, including affordable housing, private residential projects, offices and commercial spaces, and mixed-use, cultural and leisure. The quality of the buildings and their commitment to the use of timber construction has earned them an international reputation in environmentally sustainable architecture and design.

The studio used a modular three-storey structure that showcases the first British-made CLT – a type of engineered wood that is much stronger than standard timber, manufactured in Scotland using American tulipwood. The project was a collaboration between the architects, engineering firm Arup (already on WeVux) and the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC). The process involves layering sections of wood at right angles, then glueing them together. MultiPly comprises 111 panels of CLT, locking in 30 tonnes of carbon dioxide. This means that all the emissions from making and transporting the raw materials are offset, making MultiPly a carbon-neutral structure: the building arrived to the site as a flat-pack kit of parts, the panels were slotted together using digitally fabricated joints, allowing the pavilion to be assembled in just five days.

Waugh told Dezeen: “It’s about not using concrete and steel, but carbon friendly replenish-able materials.”  MultiPly is open at the V&A Sackler Courtyard from 15 September to 1 October 2018.

All Rights reserved to Waugh Thistleton

Photography by Ed Reeve