By Bryn Martin
‘Lumbar’ is an exploration of a wood joint that consists of three parts; when these parts are put together it creates a complex union that is self-concealing. The joint is put together through a series of sliding operations and at the end, a final locking member to hold it all together. The initial interest in this particular system was due to the concealed nature of the joint itself as well as the strict sequential operation in which it goes together.
The goal of the project was to challenge the limitations posed by the complex geometric relationship between the three members as well as testing its flexibility as a building block of architectural form. The final ‘folly’ exercise was created by extending and bending one of the three joint members to form a rib-like structure that the other two members could slot into along a series of parametrically controlled curves. The final experiment was to test the rotational limitations of the joint system by rotating it three-dimensionally in relation to an attractor-point system in grasshopper. The form morphs from a vertical wall condition into a curvilinear roof condition and appears to be almost spinal in nature – hence the project’s name ‘Lumbar’.
