We’re learning again… and taking students along for the ride.
It is summer 2024 and Raw welcomes a brand-new group of students for 2 weeks of engineered timber design and construction training, and this time we welcome the students to our bigger and better training room. Yes, that’s right, we’ve extended our training room to allow for even more students and in true Raw fashion we’ve used CLT, held together with Rothoblaas fittings.
The Raw Learning Emersion is 5 days jam packed full of theory and hands on learning where we inspire modular design thinking and engineered timber construction from concept to prototype in collaboration with learners and educational institutes.
As always, we started the week with theory classes presented by industry partners, engineered timber experts and professionals working in the field. We then back the theory up with a design brief aimed at solving real challenges.
For the brief we wanted to design using Cross Laminated Timber in a new and interesting ways. Students were given 10 sheets of CLT and tasked to divide these sheets up in the most efficient and effective yet flexible modular building blocks to produce a compact structure that has all the necessary functions of a cabin or compact living space. But to stop there would have been too easy….
They then had to break that down and construct a whole new building using the same components in a different way to solve additional needs such as communal workspace with kitchenette for instance. They also had to suggest a link between the two buildings so that these designs could be linked, say to form communities.
After a few brainstorming sessions and drafting up design sketches, the students translate their ideas to CAD models that we first cut in cardboard, test, refine and ultimately CNC cut the final design as a 1:3 plywood prototype.
Adding to the excitement of learning about the full manufacturing process, our friends at Rubio Monocoat gave the students a demonstration on finishing using their exterior products.
On the Friday we were joined by VIP guests for a lunch followed by the student presentations. We were truly amazed to see the design process, reiterations and end product of each group and believe that the students walked away with valuable material knowledge and a newfound confidence to design in engineered timber.
At the Raw Learning Experience we:
Engage modular design thinking through making.
Discover your raw potential from design idea to reality.
Solve real challenges, hands on.
Interested in learning with us, let’s get in touch