The Bergen International Wood Festival took place from May 9th to 13th, 2016, and our intern Heather Scott and her team came home with 2nd Prize. Congratulations to Heather and her team!
The festival took place in the city of Bergen, Norway, on the edge of a small lake not far from the City Centre. Over the course of five days, structures took shape as locals passed by on the popular river walk.
There were 25 teams in total, building innovative structures and sculptures using 2×2 wood members. Heather’s team was the one exception, opting for sheets of plywood instead and using no metal hardware. The sheets were cut into strips with a simple peg-and-hole modular system. The pieces were bent and connected with a combination of tension and compression to form three-dimensional volumes with perfect geometric patterns.
Projects explored the theme of this year’s festival: “The Green Transition”. Some used natural patterns like living cells and the golden ratio, while others took a more abstract, conceptual approach to themes of sustainability. Several projects used sustainable building practices by minimizing the production of waste materials and even repurposed other teams’ end cuts and scraps.
