Project Plan

Aims

To promote the use of new timber as a construction material in Uruguay
To develop a knowledge base of timber construction techniques in Uruguay
To provide a high quality house which fits the user's needs
To provide a solution to the housing problem in Uruguay, with a possibility of having a wider reach in Latin America.

Objectives

To understand the material behaviour of timber sourced from Uruguay, through structural tests in the laboratory
To understand the user's needs
To design, prototype and test suitable connections to ensure performance in the Uruguayan context and the associated limitations
To understand the wider implications of building with timber, analysing the environmental, economic and structural performance

So far we have carried out preliminary research into the problems of housing and timber construction in Uruguay, as discussed in this site. We aim to further this research looking in more detail at the timber industry, social housing and current timber building techniques. From this research we aim to design, prototype and test chosen construction techniques to ensure buildability and strength. These construction techniques will then be analysed to discuss their advantages and disadvantages in the Uruguayan context.

Limitations

We have identified the following limitations to our work:

Access to data in a foreign, less developed country
Language barriers in sources
Timescale for building and testing prototypes
Cost of obtaining materials for building and testing prototypes
No first hand experience of Uruguay
No first hand experience of timber construction

Resources

Samples of Uruguayan timber
Access to workshops and machinery
Assistance in designing prototypes and setting up testing
Environmental modelling software
Access to technical resources

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Timescale

To ensure we complete our thesis work, and have enough time to research, design, test and analyse our work we have devised a Gantt Chart, as seen below. This includes the different activities and the dates by which we aim to complete them, This Gantt Chart will be updated as we work.

The main deadlines consist of the Interim Report due on the 1st of February 2012, and the Final Thesis Report due on the 26th of March 2012.