Material Connections: Writers Theatre by Studio Gang

To ring in the new year, they are partnering with Landmarks Illinois on a January 5 panel conversation about the past and future of Helmut Jahn's Thompson Center building. On January 6, They will host a panel discussion on interior spaces - inspired by the Art Institute's Thorne Rooms and CAB's Horizontal City - and presented with Art Design Chicago. Of course, there's still time to visit the Biennial exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Their research considers the narratives embedded in material and its distribution that engage with wider social, political, economic, and philosophical issues. Wood timber played a generative role for their Writers Theatre project, completed in 2016 in Glencoe, Illinois. Presented here is a full-scale mock-up of the wood structure that Studio Gang designed to support the theater lobby’s second-floor canopy walk.

This structure reflects the local area’s history of timber production and resonates with Glencoe’s many Tudor style buildings, which recall a golden age of English drama. Its seemingly delicate lattice screen is actually an innovative structural system that uses wood in tension. Hung from the roof beams, its outer layer of Port Orford cedar battens suspend the canopy walk without mechanical fastening. Used in place of fastening is a wood “cat’s paw” detail developed in collaboration with a team of timber specialists and engineers that utilizes connection techniques akin to traditional Chinese and Japanese joinery methods.

The full-scale mock-up was used to test the structural and expressive capabilities of this innovative wood system.