Wood Challenges 2011: a challenge for engineering and architecture students

The Vosges theater of innovative expression!

The 7th edition of the Wood Challenges will bring together around fifty architecture and engineering students at the foot of the Château d'ÉpinalComing from all over the world, divided by drawing lots into 10 homogeneous groups, they will have 8 7 days and nights to meet the Challenges that the organizers are preparing to throw at them.

It will be for these students to conduct a long joint reflection on a subject that will only be revealed to them on the first day. This reflection will lead to the design and then the creation of an inventive work in wood on a scale of 1 and above all on the scale of their collective imagination!
These knights of the wood, armed with belts and hammers, will set out to conquer a new world, where engineers and architects will have to work together to achieve excellence.

To carry out their mission, they will havea cubic meter of wood from the Vosges forests, expert advice from an international teaching team (architects, engineers and teachers), hammers, multiple saws, drills and other screwdrivers...

They will live together at the foot of the Château d'Épinal, in a temporary village where only wandering souls will be able to distract them from their quest. All turned toward this cubic meter of wood entrusted to them from the very first day, they will seek the inventiveness that will allow them to express their art and put into practice all the theories acquired during their studies.

This event labeled “Wood Intelligence” was conceived at the dawn of the 21st century to reduce the divide between engineers and architects, in order to emphasize the importance of pooling knowledge and know-how in building a sustainable and peaceful future.

At the initiative of the ENSA of Nancy (National School of Architecture) and the ENSTIB of Épinal (National School of Wood Technologies and Industries), in partnership with the ENSA of Strasbourg and the CRITTBOIS (Resource Center for Wood Industries), with the support of the General Council of the Vosges, the Regional Council of Lorraine and the City of Epinal as well as numerous industry partners, the Défis du Bois are now established as an exceptional international university challenge, an extraordinary human adventure for its participants, but also as true proof of the dynamism and the exceptional wealth of skills and intelligence of wood in the "Wood Valley" of the Vosges.

website: www.defisbois.fr