The Smile wins the World Architecture Festival 2017 ‘Display’ award

The Smile has been awarded the World Architecture Festival’s 2017 Display Award after a vigorous judging process in Berlin on 15 November.

Alison Brooks Architects collaborated with The American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), Arup and the London Design Festival to present this cross-laminated tulipwood structure.

The Smile is one of the Festival’s Landmark Projects in 2016, and was inhabited and explored by the public. The spectacular, curved, tubular timber structure measured 3.5m high, 4.5m wide and 34m long and was effectively a beam curving up at both ends. Showcasing the structural and spatial potential of cross-laminated American tulipwood, The Smile was the first ever ‘mega-tube’ made with construction-sized panels of hardwood CLT.