The Wooden Waves: In order to find the perfect form and design, Mamou Mani and Buro Happold have tested more than a hundred prototypes for this installation meant to create a visual link between 17 and 71 Newman Street entrance spaces, of Buro Happold Engineering’s London offices. The suspended timber structure has incorporated LED lighting stripes, that make it a functional interior piece of furniture. The installation is made of laser cut plywood pieces which were assembled together using male/female connections. To create the supporting structure for the modules, the engineers have used the ”Topological Optimisation” tool, that generated a light structure, which uses a minimum of material.
The pieces from the installation were left in their natural state, and no finishing layer was applied. The project was created as a way of celebrating Buro Happold’s innovations in the fields of timber structure and gridshells. Apart from the visual component, the modules are also functional, helping to diffuse light and being able to absorb sounds and to stabilize the temperature, by using special features the were incorporated in the design. 
By Cristina Juc