plans and text: © Yves Weinand Architecte Lausanne . photos: © Ilka Krammer
The Vidy theater pavilion has been designed in the IBOIS (Laboratory of Timber Constructions of EPFL). The laboratory provided the implementation of unprecedented support structure exclusively made of wood panels.
The pavilion is a double-layered folded plate structure entirely made out of timber, without any screws, nails or adhesive bonding. The double tenon assembly technique developed for this building uses integral mechanical attachments inspired by traditional woodworking joints. The 21cm space in between the two wood layers is filled with a phonical and thermical isolation, made of cellulose, a wood compound.
Folded plate structures have the benefit to fulfill both a supporting as well as a covering function, with, in this case, spans ranging from 16 to 20m and a total covered area of 540m2. Each arch segment is prefabricated in 3 parts: two walls segments and one roof segment, placed on top of the walls segments.
The wood-timber connectors peculiarity is that they are an integral part of the panels. This construction therefore requires a customized prefabrication: connectors are cut in the factory together with the panels in a single operation. It took only 10 days to erect the building. Once assembled, these wood panels ensure alone the building structure, and minimize metal connectors for such structure.
Inaugurated in September 2017, the pavilion can accommodate 250 seated people.
These innovative wood-wood connections has been applied to the scale of a building for the first time !
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