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- Overview
- BamX EPFL is a research pavilion created through a collaborative effort involving weaving artist Alison Martin, the Geometric Computing Laboratory (GCM) at EPFL, the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE), and the Laboratory for Creative Computation (CRCL) at EPFL. This project was conceived as a temporary interior installation for the Faculty of Architecture building at EPFL, showcasing the potential of bamboo in modern architectural design.
- Design and Structure
- The pavilion was designed as an ultra-lightweight dome composed of 36 deployable straight cylindrical components. When deployed, these cylinders connect seamlessly at 21 woven nodes, forming a double-layered segmented shell that combines stability with aesthetic appeal.
- Material Specifications
- The primary material for the structure was bamboo from the Phyllostachys family, sourced from the Tuscany region of Italy. Each bamboo pole, harvested at 3-4 years of maturity, has a cross-section diameter of approx. 5 cm. These poles were split using a traditional bamboo splitting device, producing 6 slats per pole, each measuring 2.5 cm in width and 7 mm in thickness (approx.). To ensure consistent material quality and continuity, only the central portion of the bamboo poles was used to reduce diameter variations.
- Construction Details
- Total Material: The structure utilized 50 bamboo poles of 5 meters each and 20 poles of 3 meters each.
Geometry: The design is based on a spherical cap, approximated using a truncated icosahedron.
Dimensions: The pavilion spans 10.3 meters in diameter and reaches a height of 4.60 meters.
Deployable Straight Cylinders: Cylinders have a diameter of 40 cm when deployed and are shaped as a quad-grid. Each grid is formed by 12 spiral curves, with 6 curves per family. Each spiral curve completes one turn around the corresponding edge-axis of the cylinder.
Total Slats: A total of 432 bamboo slats were used, resulting in a lightweight structure with a total weight of less than 160 kg.
Team
- Geometric Computing Laboratory (GCM), EPFL
- Filip Goc, Florin Isvoranu, Prof. Dr. Mark Pauly, Dr. Davide Pellis, Samara Ren, Dr. Seiichi Suzuki
- Weaver, Independent Researcher
- Alison Martin
- Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE), University of Stuttgart
- Tzu-Ying Chen, Yanan Guo, Marta Gil Pérez, Prof. Dr. Jan Knippers
- Laboratory for Creative Computation (CRCL), EPFL
- Eric Duong, Maxence Grangeot, Prof. Dr. Stefana Parascho, Ian Ting
- EPFL students
- Ruben Bento, Antoine Brunner, Guillaume Hueber, Alix Magnaguémabé, Christian Meier, Sepehr Mousavi, Maximilian Paulsen, Xinran Tao, Sixiao Xu
