Dror Benshetrit's QuaDror design serves many masters
The December/January issue of Dwell tells the storyof an accidental design that has reverberated across buildings and product design alike.
Industrial designer Dror Benshetrit was trying to come up with a design for a chandelier frame when he happened upon a structure in which, says Dwell, he quickly saw significant potential.
Dubbed the QuaDror, Dwell describes the structure as "four identical L-shaped pieces, with each edge of each piece cut to the same slight angle" and the ideal angle, says Benshetrit, is 15 degrees.
But it's probably best described in Benshetrit's own words from the article:
"It’s very strong and stable,” Benshetrit says. “The triangulations are always opposite—you have a V on one side and an A on the other—so the supports are constantly in tension. It’s always parallel to the ground [the 15-degree angles are self-correcting] so you can stack them, and in terms of compression load, it’s almost as sturdy as a block. And you can use thin L-shaped pieces, which give you a trestle, or thicker ones, so it looks like a solid object."
Through a partnership with weeHouse, a maker of prefabricated homes, the QuaDror forms the basis of the QD 01-06 dwellings, which can be arranged into homes ranging from 900 to 3,000 square feet, and either one or two stories. The eight beams that comprise the QuaDror are shipped flat and according to the article, the prefab homes can be built onsite in a few days. They'll be able starting this spring.
More interestingly, the QuaDror could also be modified and serve as the basis for emergency shelters that can be quickly erected using a wide range of skin materials and used for disaster-relief housing.
But not to waste the stability and appealing aesthetics that the structure offers, the QuaDror is also being worked into everything from table legs to a high end floor-mounted chandelier, complete with 6,400 Swarovski crystals. That's a seriously versatile building component.
[via Dwell]
Images:Dwell
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com