PROJECT DATA

Location: Harzé, Belgium

Building Type: Industrial hall

Timber Company: MOBIC SA (Belgium)

Robotic Company: IMAX PRO (Belgium)

Architect: Yves Weinand, Liège (Belgium)

Timber Engineering: Bureau d’Etudes Weinand, Liège (Belgium)

Technology Transfer: Laboratory for Timber Construction, IBOIS, EPFL, Prof. Yves Weinand, Julien Gamerro, Martin Nakad, Nicolas Rogeau

Expected Beginning: 2019

RESEARCH

A current thesis (by Julien Gamerro, PhD student at IBOIS) titled Prefabricated Structural Timber Elements using wood-wood connections, aims to define and present the development and mechanical behavior of standard structural elements using Oriented Strand Board (OSB) and Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) panels for slab or roof components using wood-wood connections.

The objectives are to introduce a simplified calculation method based on beam elements and to compare its accuracy with an experimental investigation on large samples in order to satisfy the current standards for timber engineering. The project aims is to implement those elements at building scale.

PROJECT

Located in Harze, Belgium, the hall will be built in two steps. First, three longitudinal bays whose carriers are spaced from 10 to 12 meter. Followed, in the second part, by two additional bays of identical dimensions.
The hall of 5000 m2 is covered with a shed roof. The porticoes, entirely in wooden poles and beams of OSB cross a range of 10 meters, they support at their ends solid wood trellises of 12 meters long.
This structure is intended to accommodate a longitudinal production line and a large storage space.

PARTNERSHIP

The Mobic Hall project is the result of a partnership with MOBIC, a company engaged in wood frame development and production. Thanks to the work done by Nicolas Rogeau at the IBOIS laboratory (thesis in progress: Digital Fabrication and Robotic Assembly of Timber Flat Structure), the ambitious objective of this project is to have the entire hall assembled and erected entirely by robots.
The company MOBIC belongs to the same company as IMAX PRO, the latter is specialized in the development of collaborative robots for woodworking.