The 2024 Bethel Woods Art and Architecture Festival showcases student work

Now in its third iteration, Bethel Woods Artwork and Structure Competition wrapped up this month. In Bethel, New York, structure college students, professors, and organizers put collectively a sprawling group present unfold all through the historic web site of the 1969 Woodstock pageant. 

The affair passed off between September 11 and 15. College students and college from Princeton College, Kean College, Auburn College, Syracuse College, Cornell College, Arizona State College, Georgia Tech, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Rochester Institute of Expertise all partook.

Construct Neighborhood, Construct Creatively, Construct Fest was this yr’s theme. Over the course of 5 days, contributors constructed installations they designed off-site within the months main as much as BuildFest. The installations will probably be on view throughout Catbird Music Competition as purposeful artwork infrastructures, very similar to the designs by College of Miami college students and professors at Woodstock 55 years in the past.

“Buildings are, at their core, bodily constructs,” pageant organizer Neal Lucas Hitch stated in an announcement. “Even with the rise of computational design instruments and digital fabrication, they’re nonetheless, essentially, grounded within the materials world; for each robotic that mills or prints an object, there are individuals who transfer and transport these objects. Likewise, festivals are bodily interactions between individuals–one of many remaining few locations the place teams collect to interface and collaborate socially with no digital veil.”

Hitch continued: “With this understanding, BuildFest approaches the dichotomy between the bodily and digital not as a binary however as an opportunity for collaboration—asking contributors to think about what a future may seem like during which digital and analog strategies of building are built-in in a extra healthful method; one during which constructing applied sciences (outdated and new) can fuse to foster smaller, greener and extra numerous economies able to sustaining the long-term habitation of people on this nice floating mud-ball, planet earth.”

The seven initiatives offered at this yr’s pageant are listed under with descriptions offered by the undertaking groups.

Timberlyn

Princeton College

“Timberlyn is impressed by the historic spirit of Woodstock and epitomizes the synergy between human ingenuity and robotic precision. Crafted from the collaboration between people and robots, this eco-conscious stage gives versatility, accommodating music performances and neighborhood occasions alike. The undertaking makes use of state-of-the-art analysis in human-robot collaborative building (HRCC), leveraging sustainable practices to design and fabricate a flexible construction from reclaimed dimensional lumber. Within the HRCC course of, people and robots mix their respective benefits—the dexterity and decision-making capabilities of people and the precision and effectivity of robots—in a shared meeting atmosphere. The meeting workflow is enhanced by way of real-time notion suggestions and adaptive management optimization, enabling waste minimization for bespoke building and advancing present practices towards sustainable automation.”

Curtain Name

Auburn, Syracuse, & Cornell Universities

“Curtain Name investigates using semi-automated building strategies to check the formal, spatial, and structural capability of sunshine wooden framing. Semi-automated building is a hybrid technique that emphasizes human-robot collaboration. Fairly than robotically automating the method fully, this technique permits human contributors in any respect talent ranges to simply interact within the building course of. In the end, this undertaking considers alternate approaches that develop standard modes of labor relative to the design, fabrication, and building course of. Greater than only a shade construction, the undertaking supplies a extremely versatile “stage” that enables for a variety of programming. It could actually accommodate casual, impromptu actions resembling lounging, picnicking, or studying, or organized pageant actions resembling film nights, lectures, pop-ups, and performances of all types.”

Rise, Repeat

Georgia Tech & Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

“The pavilion makes use of three off-the-shelf parts commonplace in on a regular basis American home building: (1) pressure-treated, pine stair stringers, (2) precast concrete deck footings, and (3) stainless-steel, star-drive deck screws. The repetition of uniform, pre-fabricated parts permits for a cheap finances and ease/velocity of meeting within the discipline. Stringer parts are joined mechanically with screws, with out the necessity to lower or modify the weather and with out utilizing adhesives or coatings. This light-touch building technique permits for a method of disassembly and re-use, contemplating the complete life cycle of the pavilion’s supplies. After the three-year set up at Bethel Woods, the pavilion will be dismantled and relocated to a different web site or dismantled and donated to neighborhood constructing organizations within the space to be re-used as gently-used stair stringers in standard building. On this means, the undertaking serves as a modest testing floor for a reusable, round strategy to structure and its supplies.”

MycoShell

Cornell College

“MycoShell is an set up that reveals the potential of organic self-growing and adaptive constructing supplies towards a collaborative way forward for the digital and the analog. MycoShell is constructed of structural mycelium-bound composite panels which have been grown from an area fungal pressure of the Ganoderma household on regional agricultural byproducts of corn and hemp. The result’s a biobased, carbon-negative, and absolutely round constructing part with structural capacities. MycoShell engages these mycelium-bound panels to kind a compression-optimized vault constructed from particular person catenary arches.”

Blocks

Kean College

“Blocks is a modular furnishings sequence designed to create an interactive and playful seating space for the Harvest Competition. Comprised of three elements: an L-shaped bench, an L-shaped 6 step, and movable cubes, the undertaking creates a fascinating panorama that prices the consumer with defining its boundaries. The benches and steps are unfold throughout the world to create completely different interplay zones, whereas the movable cubes will be stacked, moved, rotated, and shifted for particular person wants. The movable cubes are clad on two sides with an alternating system of wooden tiles and customized HDPE tiles. The HDPE tie-dye tiles are created from recycled HDPE plastic and forged in customized CNC-milled molds. This modular seating creates a fascinating and versatile atmosphere for all Harvest Competition guests.”

Spring/Summer season 2024

Arizona State College

“Spring/Summer season 24 intertwines the colourful essence of Woodstock style with cutting-edge architectural practices. It serves as an homage to the liberty, insurrection, and connection to nature emblematic of Woodstock’s iconic type whereas pioneering the utilization of textiles as a major architectural aspect. The proposal celebrates the flexibility of textiles, drawing inspiration straight from the varied array of supplies, patterns, and kinds that outlined the clothes of the Woodstock technology. By embracing textiles as the basic constructing block, our set up transcends standard architectural norms, mirroring the boundary-defying spirit of Woodstock.”

The Pen

Rochester Institute of Expertise

“The Pen is a 36-sided tridecahexagonal cylinder created from recycled supplies, rising from the bottom as a multifaceted sculptural kind. The construction serves as a submerged seating space, inviting engagement from guests whereas visually aligning with a second adjoining 36-sided platform throughout the sphere. The distant deck features as a stage, making a dynamic interaction between the 2 parts. Collectively, these geometric types redefine the panorama, providing an area for gathering, efficiency, and reflection, all inside an environmentally aware framework that reuses discarded supplies.”