Assembly Studios Bandshell

A Chebyshev Gridshell With Elastically Bent Timber Members 

This bandshell structure features a Chebyshev gridshell created with elastically bent timber members, anchoring into a doubly curved glulam ring beam. The structure is a keystone of the 120-acre production park in Atlanta for Gray Media / Assembly Studios, serving firstly as a 2026 FIFA World Cup™ viewing venue, and then as a focal point for local performing arts.

The two-layer lattice shape was form-found through a series of rigorous computational and physical model exercises, including 1:80, 1:50, and 1:10 scale models built using our in-house 3D and laser printers. Affectionately called “the Pringle”, the structure will be the first of its kind in North America and is currently under construction.

Fabrication & Assembly 

The biggest fabrication challenge lay in the rationalization, layup, and shipping of the iconic doubly curved and faceted glulam "ring beam". Rather than sourcing cost-prohibitive custom material from an outside supplier, we opted (as we often do) to solve the problem ourselves in our 50,000 sqft shop in Abbotsford.

Glulam for the ring beam was sourced in singly curved billet form from Western Forest Products, broken up into shippable 60ft segments. Our master carpenters derived a proprietary method of creating double curvature using plywood jigs, not dissimilar from our approach to the doubly curved CLT for the KF Spiral Stair project.

Once laid up, the custom segments feature an elegant chamfer on the visual surface, created through a mixture of CNC and hand planing techniques.