Using only reclaimed wood. Re- Emerge pavilion by EmTech/AA and Hassell

Hassell challenged EmTech students to keep the carbon footprint of the project as low as possible and therefore only use reclaimed timber. Xavier De Kestelier, Head of Design at Hassell, noted that “The students really took on the challenge with both hands and decided early on to build the pavilion out of timber from reclaimed wooden pallets.”

Construction Waste is Useful
Wood is inherently the best biofabricated and biodegradable material; it is renewable, resilient and lasts for a long time. When a timber building is demolished after several decades, it does not produce useless waste but instead generates reclaimed wood that can be reused and repurposed in other applications after disassembly, becoming part of the circular economy.

Re-Emerge was created with Grade A reclaimed wood pallets, one of the most abundant reused timber elements in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry yet one which generally ends up in landfill or burnt as fuel. Instead, in Re-Emerge, their structural and morphological capacities are explored and exploited. The reclaimed pallets used in the pavilion have been collected from various timber recycling facilities in and outside London.  

 

Complexity Arises from Simplicity
The structural system for Re-Emerge comprises diamond-shaped volumetric timber modulesthat are created by scoring and kerfing wood pallets. These diamond modules are organised into structural ribs which are then assembled with lap joints, thereby diminishing the need for secondary materials in the joinery system. The system can sustain loads in vertical and horizontal arrangements.  

 

Conscious Fabrication and Installation
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the reclaimed timber planks employed within Re-Emerge provided useful information which informed the pavilion’s preliminary design phase. Analysis of most plywood types used for external construction versus solid timber planks demonstrated that CO2 emissions from plywood are significantly higher than solid planks during the preparation stage.

 

Third Life
At the end of its second life-cycle, Re-Emerge will be disassembled. Part of the pavilion will be erected in the Hassell offices in London and part of it will be sent back to the timber recycling facilities where its materials were sourced. The ambition of Re-Emerge is to create a strong dialogue between the local timber industry and its by-products, and to demonstrate to the world that innovative timber architecture can be created with construction waste while maintaining a mindful approach towards our environment.