The essence of wood

Project idea

The Idea of this project is to create an inner space defined by wood.

The perception of an interior space is very individual; everything is in our mind and it influenced by a variety of stimulations.

However the inner space made from timber is easily definable. One of the most important requirements is roofing of the space. Not roofing as a saddle roof, but something what surrounds us and what gives us the feeling of shelter.
A typical example is forest. If you enter the forest, you perceive roofing in terms of branches and crowns of trees, it is a space that absorbs us, and therefore we perceive it as an interior space.

Wood associates tree and tree associates forest. Forest and trees could be seen as something alive what is constantly evolving. However timber in the form of a construction element, whether battens, rafters, or just felled tree trunks, cannot be seen as a living organism. We have to treat it as something inanimate, what ever since the felled of the tree, spontaneously perishable.

Project description

Nature of wood can be first traced at wooden shelters, abodes and later on the use of wood in construction. At first it began to appear in dwellings constructed of wooden chunk, propped against a tree. This is how a tepee had been evolved. This development is still based on the principle of interlocking timbers together in the shape of the letter A, which later had been converted to the form of the roof, as we know it today.
Timber wants to be a roof that can create a shelter for anything or anyone.

Technical information

This project was built near Brno near a small village called Lipůvka. At the edge of the woods overlooking the pilgrimage site on the opposite hill.
The construction is very simple, only made of wooden laths and nails.

Co-authors

Tomáš Sysel