Wooden geometric structure with triangular supports in an industrial workshop setting.

Skeleton

Wood Program 25-26, Aalto University

Site: Helsinki, Finland

Date: 10/2025

Supervisor: Pekka Heikkinen, Daniela Alatorre, Laura Zubillaga

Teammate: Shivani Shah, Francisco Pérez Bada

The skeleton consists of three three-dimensional wooden frames.

The objective is to design a wooden frame that can be assembled within 20 minutes and is compact, structurally robust, and simple.

The system must be flat-packed to fit within two pallets measuring 800 × 2400 mm.

Stacked wooden planks and tools including a hammer, wrench, tape measure, knife, and pliers on a gray floor marked with yellow and black hazard tape and orange boundary lines in a workshop or construction area.

What is a frame?

A frame is a load-bearing structural system composed of interconnected elements—typically columns, beams, and joints—that support a building and transfer loads to the ground.

Based on the availability of the materials in the workshop and aesthetics, we chose the dimension of the pine wood strip of 45x45x3000mm.

Three wooden tripod stands on a cutting mat, with art supplies including pencils and rolls of paper in an art studio.

Joints Exploration

After defining the frame geometry, the focus shifted to the design of the joints for the wooden strips. Initially, this presented a challenge, as three different joint types occur from top to bottom, and each joint connects three strips arriving from different angles. The aim was to identify a consistent principle that could be applied to all joints.

Following several iterations and connection tests, a solution was developed: A fourth element that unifies and connects the three wooden strips.

A large wooden letter 'X' standing upright on a table in a workshop or studio.
Stack of wooden planks arranged to resemble the letter A on a concrete floor.
Two wooden level tools on a worn workbench or table.
Black and white photo of a wooden A-frame ladder near a doorway with windows.
Wooden letters spelling 'XIXI' arranged on a work table in front of a large window with trees visible outside.
Close-up of several wooden planks standing upright on the floor, with some measurements written on them.

Final Joints

- The fourth element approach.

- Simplify form.

Bottom Joint

-An equilateral triangle connector glued by three pine wood pieces.

- Connect with two dowels on each side.

Close-up of a wooden tripod with a central joint, set up in a workshop with shelves and tools in the background.

Center Joint

-A circle Larch wood.

-Two equilateral triangular pine wood.

Close-up of the top corner of a wooden A-frame ladder against a metallic ceiling.

Top Joint

-Rectangle Pine wood connector.

-A dowel goes through.