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Digital fabrication can create complex shapes from wood-based panels.
Technology is developing rapidly, and the digital world offers the opportunity to do things we simply couldn’t do before, such as self-assembling furniture and building our own homes.
This is the view of Giulio Masotti, a Milan-based architect who created the unique Wood-Skin system.
Mr. Masotti describes his “out of the box” thinking as new and amazing applications are possible for wood and other materials due to advances in CNC machining and software.
Enter “Industry 4.0.” It’s gathering momentum for manufacturers and has the potential for big change.
"What is Industry 4.0 really about? It's about communication. We talk to machines, but most importantly, how machines communicate with each other."
Fundamentally, this is a platform for increasing digital delivery and machine self-awareness. CNC machining technology and the latest software mean that any contour can be simulated and machined, leading to the concept of a self-assembling platform.
Mr Masotti believes that this technology and 3D printing are becoming the “new standard”.
“But it can still do a lot more,” he said. “We can explore new areas. 3D printing can make very large structures that are very resilient and don’t need supports. And the biggest area for virtual reality isn’t video games, it’s manufacturing and machines.”
He says there's now a "smart" block that can build itself, effectively using a tiny motor to do the work.
Origami decorative shapes at the Maison Margiela store in Milan
“It’s not just us talking to the machine, it’s us talking to the end product.” Mr. Masotti calls Wood-Skin a disruptive digital manufacturing product of Industry 4.0, bringing materials into the digital age. He says this is similar to what’s happening with 3D printing.
The use of three-dimensional materials, mainly in wood-based panel/composite products, allows the Wood-Skin system to form some strange, beautiful, seemingly impossible self-supporting and complex 3D structures.
Mr Masotti described the on-site assembly process of the Wood-Skin system as being akin to a giant origami.
"It's not enough to just create a new technology," he said. "Digital fabrication is the way to reshape the world around us, and to do that we need to update materials."
When developing the Wood-Skin system, Mr. Masotti developed a new family of composite materials that sandwich a special textile layer between two rigid layers. “With this simple move,” he says, “we have created an infinite number of possible variations in the material.”
The rigid layer is usually made of wood materials, including medium-density fiberboard, Auckland plywood, oriented strand board and Finnish birch plywood, with thickness ranging from 4 to 30 mm.
The Wood-Skin system software was developed to process 3D shapes like origami, unfold them and place them into the produced slab workpiece.
This hasn't really been possible before, Masotti said, because it's not possible to create structures with these materials that can move and breathe, like paper.
The interlocking nature of the Wood-Skin structure means it can be produced in minutes, with smooth delivery for easy transport and assembly. Timber sheathing joints are used to connect the Wood-Skin slabs to form the on-site structure.
Concealed holes and other hardware fixation make installation easy and quick.
Milan, an installation in a luxury store
“This is the future,” Mr. Masotti said. All materials can be mixed and compounded.
The elements of the modular triangular pattern structure can vary in size, while the pattern, geometry and density can all be adjusted in a custom system.
Wood-Skin panels are available in standard sizes of 2 500 x 1 250 mm and 3 050 x 1 525 mm, but Wood-Skin can be used to create larger surfaces for projects of any size, from small interior furniture to the facades of skyscrapers.
The exterior structures are supported by treated plywood, which can be finished with laminate, veneer and varnish.
“We are working hard to develop new and important application areas in the service and contracting industry, such as exterior applications and facades, which is a very large market that we have not really touched yet,” added Mr. Masotti.
This technology is also used to manufacture acoustic products. Sound-Skin panels are perforated to achieve high acoustic performance, while CNC machining can shape a variety of holes to accommodate speakers, lights, and other technical equipment.
Projects using the Wood-Skin system include: the interior facade of the Reign Restaurant in Dubai; a pair of tiled "curtains" and outdoor origami decorations at the Milanese fashion house Maison Margiela; the interior column structure of the Wood-Skin system for the San Donato Town Hall near Milan;An application at the linkedIn headquarters; sun-protective "curtains" at the Ibis Hotel in Basel; and a mesh panel made of medium-density fiberboard and marked with geometric patterns at a reception desk in Montreal, Canada.
Wood-Skin was also a finalist in last year’s Architizer A+ Awards, which celebrate the best buildings and designs from around the world. “It solves the problem of complex shapes in architecture and gives us a whole new way of producing everyday objects,” said Mr Masotti.
This will also help architects around the world bring their ideas to real life, he added.
As another stage in the development and evolution of the business model, Wood-Skin Systems envisions a platform where people can not only buy, but also create objects based on existing ones. They can model and build anything, such as a bike rack or a dog house, through the Wood-Skin Systems online platform, and then purchase the products and sell them through their personal stores on the platform.
“This model is similar to 3D printing and augmented manufacturing, but it allows users to create larger, multi-material target parts,” said Mr. Masotti.
"It's a solution to the problem of complex architectural shapes and gives us a completely new way to produce everyday objects," said architect Giulio Masotti.