Knitting Wood: Material and Making Exploration

Ballenberg, Switzerland, 2024

Collaborators: Thomas Hildebrand (ZHNW), Celina Martinez (ZHNW), Carla Ferrer (ZHNW)

During a two-day material and making exploration in the historical setting of the Ballenberg Museum, we developed a basic understanding of the material wood as well as structures and construction in a contemporary re-use context. The course started with the fundamentals of the material by looking at the preexisting knowledge of the participants and by hands-on testing the group’s assumptions. We then followed up with a comprehensive introduction to essential woodworking techniques that lay the foundation for evaluating and understanding industrial processes and construction techniques used in the current built environment. The second part of the workshop focused on developing a piece of proto-furniture for the Ballenberg Museum. The project aims to summarize the participants’ collective experience and make it accessible as a starting point for further investigations into re-use strategies with wood components and as wood as a diverse local construction material.