Innovative design and construction of a permanent elastic timber gridshell

This paper presents a new elastic timber gridshell built to cover a wood storage area at the Timber Engineering Laboratory of the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. It is the first permanent elastic timber gridshell to be built in the country and the first in the world to be made of Eucalyptus globulus Labill. It includes various novelties for timber gridshells, such as a long-shell structural concept supported only on its short sides and the use of a third direction of bent laths to give the shell in-plane shear stiffness. Several research and development concepts have been implemented by the authors in this new gridshell. The design and structural analysis processes, experimental research for the development of 24 m long laths without mechanical joints, structural details and information about the construction method are described.