Linkage Lamination – Carving a Festival in Portland, UK

Stemming from a close study of Michihiro Matsuda’s recycled guitar (No.125A), the project explores two methods of fabrication: earth casting and timber lamination. A common language is established between the two techniques, allowing for the creation of complex glulam beams fabricated using earth cast concrete formwork. Digital simulations are used to calibrate their behaviours, and the cast formwork is designed to enjoy a second life beyond its initial fabrication role.

This process is played out through the design of a large glulam inhabitable digging machine, with a bespoke linkage system that allows it to carve the earth, and movement rails enabling it to bridge across the site. Located in Portland, UK, between active quarries, the site hosts a festival in the summer, for which the machine prepares throughout the year by carving and casting the performance spaces into the ground itself. Visitors occupy the space between the formwork and laminated apparatus, and can make connections between the landscape and the machine that traverses the site above them.