The planning and construction of a double curved building in cross laminated timber (CLT) panels

Abstract

This paper examines the planning and building process of a double curved building made of CNC cut cross laminated timber (CLT) panels. The paper explains the design of the shape, the construction process, and the choice of surface material. Still, the main focus is to investigate the practical experiences collected through the construction of such a non-tolerance-building set. The paper will look at what unforeseen challenges occurred on site during the construction. The main challenge for a building system consisting of perfect shaped panels, is that there is no room for adjustments during construction. Several characteristics of the shape of the building is belied to have caused trouble in terms of accuracy compared to a convex-only building with the same construction system. Another finding was that the engineer's choice of screws had an unexpected and significant impact on the construction process in terms of accuracy and construction time. For future development of the building system, there should be paid attention to means to either be able to build more accurately or there should be developed a way to adjust the position of the elements during the building process.