24 INSIGHTS
© Alex de Rijke
The purpose of Cork House was more than achieving metrics and credentials – it is a perfect example of how structural testing and experimentation with new materials can help inform the environmental debate
more similarities to Lego than modern house construction. Cork House contains 1268 cork blocks assembled upon a cross-laminated timber (CLT) floorplate and founded on removable screw piles. The roof is formed from five corbelling truncated pyramids supported on timber edge members and valley lintels to span window and door openings and allow an open plan interior. Meticulous detailing of block interfaces by Matthew, Dido and Oliver, developed through experimentation on smaller test buildings and rigorously tested by BRE culminated in the weather-tight yet completely dry form of construction used on Cork House. While traditional methods of dry jointed roof construction have existed for millennia, often designed through trial and error and utilising the high self-weight compression for stability, the low density of the material led to interesting challenges for Arup such as relying on the ballast of the rooflights to prevent uplift under high winds.
Utilising the same material for both structure and insulation was also not without its challenges. Rather predictably, the denser the
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Images © Matthew Barnett Howland
blocks, the stiffer they became – however, equally predictably, the thermal insulation performance suffered. It was therefore always going to be a careful balance between the different performance requirements demanded of the material. We also had to think about the creep behaviour under sustained loading, a long-term affect that cannot be easily replicated in short-term lab experiments. We applied our knowledge gained from other plant-based materials such as timber and bamboo to best predict the future compression of this inherently soft material.
There are many ways to present the sustainability credentials of a building. The Cork House was carbon-negative at completion – not a bad starting point. In numerical terms, the building is predicted to emit only 619 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent per square meter over its lifetime. An impressive figure, which will be evaluated though, a post-occupancy study. However, taking a step back, it is clear that a dwelling formed almost exclusively from a waste biogenic material that can be effortlessly deconstructed to its constituent parts and repurposed, must have a minimal footprint on the environment.
The purpose of Cork House was more than achieving metrics and credentials. It’s a perfect example of how structural testing and experimentation with new materials can help inform the environmental debate. It is not trying to provide the definitive solution for every project. Rather, it serves to inspire the innovators of our industry, and allay the naysayers, at a time when society is demanding that we all play our part in finding answers to climate change.
Gavin Maloney is a structural engineer at Arup
ADF OCTOBER 2019
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