Residential wall construction has changed very little over the last 100 years. Light frame construction with wood is flexible, adaptable, cheap, relatively disposable, and requires very little skill to assemble. It is a dominant system for a reason and a difficult system to influence. We believe introducing “zippered Wood” to the stick framing approach could shift this entrenched construction method, making it more responsive and resource responsible.
Stick-Formed Wall subverts the expectations of a traditional stud wall. Our prototype replaces the base-plate of a traditional stud wall with a curved zippered member. That single modification transforms a planar assembly into a hyperbolic paraboloid. While seemingly minor as a local modification, the test points to more dramatic formal opportunities.
