Link to Pierre Latteur's personal page (biography, teaching, research, publications)
Timber Engineering
Humanity faces major environmental challenges, and using a maximum of timber in the construction industry is part of the solution. Building with timber, but also planting trees, re-create our past forests and extending the remaining ones is a priority. Our research in timber engineering is driven by the conviction that the use of minimally processed wood in the construction sector is likely to make it more competitive compared to concrete and steel. Our researches therefore cover a number of themes related to the use of logs for buildings : non-destructive mechanical characterization of logs, steel free connections, timber slabs, etc.
Tensegrity Structures
The architectural potential of tensegrity structures is proven. Yet, paradoxically, very few real construction projects have been built around the world. The main reasons are complex construction processes, lack of design and optimization guidelines, and excessive self-weight due to the pre-stress needed to guarantee stiffness and dynamic behavior. Our research in this field is aimed at removing the barriers that still prevent the use of tensegrity in the construction sector. With the aim of defining reliable design, calculation and construction methods, we carry out numerical developments and compare them with test results on full-scale prototypes.
Reciprocal Structures
Reciprocal structures are of indisputable architectural interest, and make it possible to build structures with considerable spans using small components, such as logs. Our research is aimed at establishing the stability, design and calculation rules specific to these structures, as well as designing assemblies that can be reliably modeled. Our research is both numerical and experimental, with tests on large-scale prototypes.
Agrivoltaic Structures
Agrivoltaic structures can take various forms, depending on the type of crop envisaged: high structures with long spans or low structures such as ground frames or vertical barriers. Our researches focus on developing different types of optimal structures, cable-stayed or not, with an emphasis on the use of wood materials, and with various constraints such as minimizing the size of foundations to reduce intervention in cultivable soils. We are also working on optimizing structures for non-agricultural photovoltaic power plants.
Other past or current researches
Using high payload drones for the construction of buildings?
The aim of this research was to lay the necessary groundwork, still not explored elsewhere, in order to prove the feasibility of building real-scale structures, in particular masonry structures, with high payload drones.
Droxels…the universal construction component?
We created the droxels while searching for a structural component able to provide four essential features required by robot-based construction:
• They can faithfully reproduce any 3D structural form with a good structural stability;
• They have a large laying tolerance for easy interlocking;
• They avoid the need for scaffolding in most cases;
• Their size can be scaled up or down to reach the desired surface aspect.
Droxels were initially developed to build with flying robots, but they also have the potential to cover a large range of “do-it-yourself / home-handyman” applications, including garden/farm/industrial shelters, temporary/emergency structures, artistic structures, tiny houses, small footbridges and retaining walls.