Design and Industry Workshop
IE University
2020-2021
Construction System III Students
Saina Abdollahzabeh, Hala Hasan Othman Abu Samra, Zain Muhannad Mahmoud Al Radaideh, Maurice Cohen Landaeta, Viola de Lusareta, Ana Domingo Marugán, Javier Fernández JimĂ©nez, MarĂa Antonia Franco Lopera, Clara Gonçalves Costa, Candela González del Tánago Padura, MarĂa González RodrĂguez de Biedma, Daniella Guevara Cáceres, Nivedita Huple, Sarah Elisabeth Kimmich, Yacine Lakhmiri, Isabel Nicole Limpo, Emmi-Julia Manninen, Ignacio AndrĂ©s MejĂa Zubillaga, Miriam Ingeborg Otto Hernández-Palacios, Lena Parsch, Miranda Ramos MejĂa, MarĂa Paula Ramos Romero, Anabela Reyes Ascanio, Katarina RuĹľic Kozelj, Celia Sánchez Ylla, Gloria MarĂa Schönburg, Celia Lauren Sekkaki, Lorenzo Uribe Sanmiguel, Deniz Alara Yener, Berrak Zeyner Yilmaz
Collaborating Company
Betanzos HB S.L. [web]
Direct by
FermĂn Blanco
IE University
2020-2021
Construction System III Students
Saina Abdollahzabeh, Hala Hasan Othman Abu Samra, Zain Muhannad Mahmoud Al Radaideh, Maurice Cohen Landaeta, Viola de Lusareta, Ana Domingo Marugán, Javier Fernández JimĂ©nez, MarĂa Antonia Franco Lopera, Clara Gonçalves Costa, Candela González del Tánago Padura, MarĂa González RodrĂguez de Biedma, Daniella Guevara Cáceres, Nivedita Huple, Sarah Elisabeth Kimmich, Yacine Lakhmiri, Isabel Nicole Limpo, Emmi-Julia Manninen, Ignacio AndrĂ©s MejĂa Zubillaga, Miriam Ingeborg Otto Hernández-Palacios, Lena Parsch, Miranda Ramos MejĂa, MarĂa Paula Ramos Romero, Anabela Reyes Ascanio, Katarina RuĹľic Kozelj, Celia Sánchez Ylla, Gloria MarĂa Schönburg, Celia Lauren Sekkaki, Lorenzo Uribe Sanmiguel, Deniz Alara Yener, Berrak Zeyner Yilmaz
Collaborating Company
Betanzos HB S.L. [web]
Direct by
FermĂn Blanco
The Design and Industry workshop is based on the experience of wood bending. This dates back to the time when man learned to make tools for his survival. Wood in its natural state has very marked elastic properties, therefore a curve made of this material will retain its shape if it is well maintained.
The objective is the initiation into the world of industrialization, manufacturing and assembly. Understanding all this as a continuity in the architect’s creative process. It is the result of various experiences with architecture students from IE University.
The workshop is organized in 3 different phases that allow a complete tour. A first to know the material and its manufacturing process. A second where from theory is passed into practice to carry out one’s own research on the qualities and uses of the material. Finally, a creative phase where once the original concepts are internalized, new ideas are unleashed to build applications through the use of material.
The high-density fiberboard manufacturing process is characterized by not using artificial adhesives to join the fibers, using water as a transport vehicle for the fibers and using lignin extracted from eucalyptus wood as a natural adhesive. Betanzos HB manufactures Tablex (high-density fibreboard) from eucalyptus from nearby plantations and sustainably managed.
The final product has a dark brown color originating during the polymerization of lignins and sugars at high temperatures, it shows characteristic marks on one of its faces since during part of the process, the boards rest on a metal mesh.
The long durability of the product, due to its high density, makes it a resistant, reliable and ecological material, which means low energy consumption and low CO2 emissions also during the manufacturing process.
The Tablex manufacturing process is fully developed at the Betanzos plant and can be summarized as sequentially in the following steps:
Classification, Chipping, Preheating, Defibration, Dissolution in water, Forming machine, Cutting, Pressure, Heat treatment, Humidification and cutting, Transformation and Warehouse.
To arrive at a good design we must master the knowledge of the material, how it is manufactured, its uses and its qualities.
For this reason we will start the workshop through experimentation with the boards, donated by Betanzos HB, through the alteration of the material using different techniques (treatments with water, with fire, boiling, baking, pressing, cutting …) as means of checking its qualities and its possible later uses.
The creative phase is dedicated to the development of proposals, different solutions for the implementation of the material in different phases of the construction process, as well as the generation of new applications for it or developing a new product or use based on the material, taking into account its manufacturing process and its characteristics.