Invited as the facilitators for the Space Making Wood Workshop – an initiative from DICRC, CEPT Ahmedabad,- Rooshad Shroff and Jwalant Mahadevwala (andBlack Design Studio) were presented with a unique opportunity to design and manufacture a canopy using left over wooden members from the previous workshop within 72 hours.

The brief presented was to incorporate 100 tapering cylindrical wooden members (2’ long / 2” diameter) that had been previously discarded due to its unaccounted additional weight.

The initial thought was to create a canopy that would contradict its inherent heaviness and move away from the linearity of the members to create a surface showcasing the grains of the wood.

The design proposed was to deconstruct the members by way of slicing each piece- whereby we had 70 cross sections from each member. The cross sections now helped us move away from a linear element to obtain more of a surface when put together that was fluid, light and flexible, absolutely unlike its original chunky form. Every piece having a unique cross section was individually drilled will six holes along its perimeter and was stitched together using metallic staple pins to form a “wooden fabric.”

Sited at the main plaza for the School of Interior Design (SID) within the CEPT campus, Ahmedabad- the canopy presented itself as a ‘wooden foliage’ suspended between two trees that would act as a shading device as well as blur itself within the tree foliage creating interesting shadow patterns on to the plaza below.

Via: designboom / rooshadSHROFF