You are on page 1of 127

R

$%3/
Copyright 2007 Riverside Architectural Press
All rights reserved by the individual paper authors who are solely responsible for their
content. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced or used
in any form or by any means - graphic electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems without prior permission of
the copyright owner. An electronic copy of these papers in .pdf format will be stored in the
CDRN database.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
FutureWood : Innovation in building design and construction / edited by Oliver Neumann and Philip Beesley.
Proceedings of the Parametric Modeling and Digital Wood Fabrication Workshop and
Symposium, held at University of British Columbia, Feb. 14, 2007.
Canadian Design Research Network.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-9780978-2-0
1. Building, Wooden--Computer-aided design--Congresses.
2. Architectural design--
Data processing--Congresses.
3. Architecture--Computer-aided design--Congresses.
4. Architecture--Technological innovations--Congresses.
5. Architecture and technology--Congresses.
I. Neumann, Oliver, 1967- II. Beesley, Philip, 1956- III. Canadian Design
Research Network IV. Parametric Modeling and Digital Wood Fabrication Workshop
and Symposium (2007 : University of British Columbia)
NA21.F88 2007 721.04480285 C2007-900762-7
Networks of Centres of Excellence
Reseaux de centres dexcellence
Cover: Ahmanson Founders Room at The Music Center, Los Angeles, Belzberg Architects
SI MON FRASER
UNI VERSI TY
engineered for strength and style...naturally!
University of
Waterloo
Canadian Design Pesearch Network
.
P|vors|oo Arch|locluru| Pross
FTPEWOOD
lOvATlO l BlLDlO DESlO + MAFACTPlO
EDlTED BY OLlvEP NEUMANN + PHlLlP BEESLEY
FUTUREWOOD
7 Preface
ROBERT WOODBURY

Simon Fraser University
Canadian Design Research Network
8 Introduction
Fabricating/Fabricated Ecologies
OLIVER NEUMANN

University of British Columbia
14 Material Performance: Craft + Building
16 Ahmanson Founders Room
The Music Center, Los Angeles
HAGY BELZBERG

Belzberg Architects

22 BURST*003 Housing Prototype
DOUGLAS GAUTHIER

SYSTEMarchitects llc
30 Mass Produced Customization
OMER ARBEL

Omer Arbel Design Ofce
34 Niagara Credit Union at Virgil
PHILIP BEESLEY

University of Waterloo
40 Canonbury Canopy
MICHAEL STACEY
Michael Stacey Architects

University of Nottingham
44 Deform House
THOM FAULDERS

Beige Design
50 Solid Wood-Wall Cabin
+ Outdoor Theater Roof Structure
OLIVER NEUMANN

University of British Columbia
56 Time + Place
The Politics of Designing with Wood
MICHAEL GREEN

mcfarlaneGreen architecture + design
64 Corelam
CHRISTIAN BLYT

GreenHus Design
68 Wood Wave Panel System
BRIAN WOUDSTRA
StructureCraft Builders Inc
Contents
72 Digital Practice: Operations + Logics
74 Responsive Surface Structure
ACHIM MENGES

Academy of Art and Design, Offenbach

AA School of Architecture, London

80 The Dry-in House
DOUGLAS HECKER
MARTHA SKINNER

eldofce

Clemson University
86 Digitally Integrated Design/Build
MARTY DOSCHER

morphosis
94 Tailors after Taylorism
KARL DAUBMANN
Ply Architects
University of Michigan
102 Fast Construction: Slow Architecture
MICHAEL STACEY
Michael Stacey Architects

University of Nottingham
108 Stock Space
SHANE WILLIAMSON

WilliamsonWilliamson
University of Toronto
114 Building Continuous Digital Planning
Processes on Timber Infrastructure
CHRISTOPH SCHINDLER

designtoproduction
121 Biographies
125 Image Credits
127 Conference + Publication Credits
FUTUREWOOD
Wood and tools. Tey bring to mind the cabinetmakers factory, boat builders
jigs, the residential construction site, concrete forms and the amateurs work-
shop. Each is at the end of conception, where already set ideas become reality.
Mostly what is made are the ideas of others-the hand holding the tool is
not that of the designer. Te history of design would appear to force such a
separation between design and its realization. Modern artifacts are complex
and demand specialized knowledge and machines for their production. It is
easy, or at least expedient, for designers to leave tools and materials to others.
Sadly, the common view that designers are ungrounded in practical reality
may be simple historical necessity.
Tis book is a bridge. Its contributors, designers all, show how new
tools can span the historical gap between thought and hand, between idea
and materiality. Contemporary computer-aided design systems and digital
fabrication machines allow us to bend the process of design in on itself, to
connect its start and nish. Both computation and physical machines are
tools for developing the substance of design. Computational tools enliven the
sketch. Once modeled inside a computer, a sketch becomes plastic. We develop,
rene and adapt it to context. We create alternative sketches in the hundreds.
Digital fabrication makes these sketches physical, as models, prototypes
and built form. Te loop closes as we use the physical sketch to inform the
world of ideas. And the world of ideas changes as we learn the consequences
of our design choices.
Te contributors to this book are explorers in this new world in which
design and craft intertwine. But why wood? In contemporary design, it is but
one of a myriad of material choices. Te answer lies in the material itself.
Wood is easy to work and form; it is accessible to many. It aords possibility.
Joining, laminating, carving, bending, cutting and nishing become sources
of design ideas. Wood is also di cult; its grain can vary unpredictably.
Its dierential strength and shrinkage with and across the grain, its limits
of folding and bending, and the peculiarities of the joint each pose creative
challenges for design. Lastly wood can be beautiful. It rewards inspiration,
thought and eort.
Wood, though it is the focus here, remains a placeholder. Each material
poses its own questions to computer-aided design and digital fabrication.
Contemporary practice worldwide is engaging these questions using all
materials and across design domains. But action is inevitably localized.
We build for specic sites, actual clients and engage local expertise. Trough
their focus on the new tools for design, the old material of wood and their
particular design situations, the designers behind these articles are our guides
into new possibilities.
Robert Woodbury
Canadian Design Research Network
Simon Fraser University
Preface
9
New software and digital fabrication are changing how we use wood. Tis
book brings together international designers, manufacturers and researchers
examining natural and synthetic wood technologies. Composite materials,
parametric design, and automated fabrication technologies are explored,
illustrating new design tools, custom manufacturing and advanced assembly
methods. Te essays and projects in this volume demonstrate exible, adapt-
able design qualities reecting a rapidly changing society.
Buildings can be seen not as singular and xed bodies, but as complex
energy and material systems that have a life span, exist as part of the environ-
ment of other buildings, and as an iteration of a long series that proceeds by
evolutionary development towards an intelligent ecosystem.
1
Tis approach
to architecture applies to design at the scale of objects, buildings, and cities
and connects to global discussions about complexity and responsiveness.
Parametric modeling and digital fabrication tools enable rich formal explo-
rations and engage complex ecologies in our surroundings. Te aim is to
explore how digital fabrication can contribute to conceptual explorations
and form-nding processes, and how new technology can inuence existing
design and construction practices.
Parametric modeling establishes relationships between elements of a
design that are similar to mathematical equations. Element parameters can
be manipulated while constraints and dependencies between elements are
maintained. Te dynamic models that result are able to respond to changes
and oer a degree of exibility and coordination never previously available.
Tese processes of anticipation and response make up the dynamic of life
2

and apply equally to everyday consideration of design, fabrication, and
construction and to conceptual explorations of dynamic conditions.
Fabricating / Fabricated Ecologies
Oliver Neumann
University of British Columbia
1.
Michael Hensel, Michael
Weinstock, Achim Menges,
Emergence in Architecture,
in AD Architectural Design,
Vol 74, No 3 (May/June
2004) 7.
2.
Michael Weinstock,
Morphogenesis and the
Mathematics of Emergence,
in AD Architectural Design,
Vol 74, No 3 (May/June
2004) 13.
1 Digitally cut pattern
Plywood sample
10
Te essays and projects gathered in this publication conrm that it is
inevitable that as a new technological system emerges, so does new art, or
even architecture.
3
By exploring conditions and concepts shared by academ-
ics, designers and fabricators, the presentations promote integration of digital
techniques into design and construction practice. Te explorations illustrate
how parametric modeling and fabrication can contribute to the conception of
new spaces, to everyday realities of commercial construction and to the trans-
formation of the regional wood industry from a resource-based economy to
one based in knowledge.
Innovation and Ecology

Historically, any idea of Canadian architecture has been Janus-faced: looking
to past and future, to politics and practice, to material evidence and discourse.
Rather than singular and static, any idea of Canadian architecture has been,
or must be, multiple and mobile, hybrid and strategic
4
Innovation can be understood as a novel re-reading and an exploitation
of an existing context. Such an approach tends to emphasize interdepen-
dency between new design methods and their particular context in material
science, economy and culture. Tese connected factors contribute to the
complex ecology of our surroundings. Using an expanded denition of
ecological design, context-specic material expression and built form become
signicant references for architectural design and production.
Modes of production and communication play a central role in design
grounded in ecology. Interdisciplinary collaborations in design, building and
research reect epistemic conditions: concepts of innovation, ecology, tech-
nology and place engage a cultural environment in ux.
While modern science often relies on an anthropocentric understanding
of the environment, the current shift in terminology from environment to
ecology signals a reassessment of the surroundings. An extended denition
of ecology can expand the scope of design beyond the environmental
performance of materials and types of construction to broad cultural consid-
erations. Innovative design is ecological design. Tis principle embraces tech-
nology as a key to future development and geographic identity. Aspects of
place now include interrelated natural and man-made conditions, including
social, cultural, economic and technological factors. Te result is
an all-inclusive denition of context.
Technology and Place
Spatial concepts are informed by the logic of fabrication and methods of
assembly. A reciprocal relationship between technology, space and locale
suggests that the introduction of new technology coincides with new spatial
concepts. Concurrently, new technologies necessitate new buildings to house
new machines eectively. Te case of early industrial buildings in the nine-
teenth century serves as an example of the correlation of new technologies,
3.
Chris Wise, Drunk in an Orgy of
Technolgy, in AD Architectural
Design, Vol 74, No 3 (May/June
2004) 56.
OLIVER NEUMANN
4.
Sherry McKay, Ideas of
Canadian Architecture, in
Substance over Spectacle:
contemporary Canadian
architecture, ed. Andrew Gruft,
(Vancouver, 2005) 192
11
means of production and building wherein individual types of construction
represented the various technical achievements of their time and new
machines with their extensive space requirements demanded progressive
change in the specically industrial architecture.
5
Situating context-specic design at the intersection of local and global
inuences has been a common theme since the early 20th century when
industrialization and the increase of mass-produced building materials
promoted a sense of regionalism as a reconciliation of the universal and the
regional, the mechanical and the human, the cosmopolitan and the indig-
enous
6
. However, modern applications of technology have often been treated
as independent of space and place.
West Coast Modernism
In British Columbia, inuences of fabrication and building technology are
evident in the development of a regional cultural identity. As an example
of cultural transfer,
7
Modern Canadian architecture and industrial design
resulted from the integration of international and local inuences: plywood
furniture, which represented the rst example of industrial design to be
produced in BC
8
merged a modernist sensitivity and modern fabrication
methods with local inuences. Similarly, the architecture of the time
synthesized and reinterpreted cultural inuences. Ideas and methods
imported predominantly from Europe were inected with local conditions
as designers and manufacturers responded directly and imaginatively to the
omnipresent landscape
9
with its climate, geography and topography.
As a formation of a regional building identity stemming from the
inventive adaptation of international contributions to suit the region,
10
BCs
West Coast Modernism marks a parallel development to the local expan-
sion of war-time plywood fabrication into aordable designer furniture in
the United States. Illustrating the relationship of global developments of
airplane design and production with local design culture, the designs of Ray
and Charles Eames built on specialized knowledge, fabrication and building
methods from the aircraft industry. Te Eames houses for the Case Study
House program have a local as well as a national and international
context.
11
With the application of aviation materials, technology, and
manufacturing systems to the production of single family house units
12
,
their architecture projects were strongly inuenced by the development of
the Los Angeles area into a national center of aviation during the rst half of
the 20th century.
Today, as standardization and mass-production have given way to mass-
customization processes, digital fabrication technology oers an opportunity
for an architectural culture that simultaneously looks to the global develop-
ments and to the particularities of the local context. Tis transformation
applies in particular to wood construction. In British Columbia, wood design
and building provide a basis for a context-specic building culture, while glob-
ally available technologies utilized in wood design and construction produce
technological networks with activities in spatially discrete locations. Tese
networks create spatial relationships that tie social networks of producers
13

7.
Rhodri Windsor Liscombe,
Modern Architecture in
Vancouver, 1938-63,
(Vancouver, 1997) 26.
8.
Allan Collier, Plywood and
Modern Furniture Design in
British Columbia 1945-1960,
in A modern life: art and
design in British Columbia,
1945-1960, ed. Ian Thom
and Alan Elder (Vancouver,
2004) 118
FABRICATION / FABRICATED ECOLOGIES
5.
Susanne Lange, Bernd and
Hilla Becher. Life and Work,
(Cambridge and London,
2007) 25.
9.
Windsor Liscombe, 27.
10.
Windsor Liscombe, 26.
11.
Kevin Starr, The Case Study
House Program and the
Impending Future. Some
Regional Considerations, in
Blueprints for Modern Living.
History and Legacy of the
Case Study Houses, ed.
Elizabeth A.T. Smith,
(Cambridge, 2002) 132
12.
Starr, 134
13.
Steven A. Moore, Technology,
Place, and the Nonmodern
Thesis, in The Journal of
Architectural Education, 53/4,
(2001) 134.
6.
Joan Ockman with Edward
Eigen, Architecture Culture
1943-1968, (New York,
2000) 107.
12
to economic and material resources for construction. Te idea that technol-
ogy is best understood through geography
14
goes beyond the notion that
building practices are simply a combination of climate, geographic inuences
and available talent. Geography takes on a broader denition that encom-
passes social, economic, cultural and technological factors of a given locality,
as well as global inuences. For Henri Lefebvre, the dynamic relationship of
technology and place produced social spaces wherein technology acts upon
nature.
15
Such a discourse can extend the notion of the natural to the more
inclusive term ecology. By engaging the social realm, technology can be seen
as essentially a spatial concept,
16
with the uniqueness of each cultural
context leading to the production of spaces with their own particular
character. Consequently, diering qualities of places and subsequently
specic architectural solutions are more a matter of technological practices
than aesthetic choices.
17
As has been pointed out in relation to Canadian
architecture, design can be understood as responsive traces of vital cultural
processes.
18
Frederic Lasserres
19
denition of modern architecture from the 1940s
as a process of design moulded by practical, economic, technological, and
cultural function, but also as a process distinguished by the subjective drama
and excitement produced by the introduction of new forms and the associa-
tion of new materials
20
is relevant to this argument. Lasserre perceived a
conceptual shift in perception of form and space that anticipated a range of
contemporary dynamic and exible systems. Digital fabrication tools such as
CNC beam processors, CNC routers, laser cutters and 3-D printers provide
a direct link between computer-aided modeling and physical form. Tese de-
vices allow for the direct translation of conceptual models into built form and
promote evolution of practical aspects of traditional wood building methods.
Te innovative design at the center of this discussion allows develop-
ment of culturally responsive designs and buildings that explore the dynamic
polarity between technology and culture, between economy and landscape.
21

Te resulting spatial organizations and formal expressions demonstrate an
evolving architecture rooted in complex ecologies.
OLIVER NEUMANN
14.
Moore, 134
15.
Henri Lefebvre, The Produc-
tion of Space, (Oxford and
Malden, 2001) 31+190.
16.
Steven A. Moore, Technology,
Place, and the Nonmodern
Thesis, The Journal of
Architectural Education, 53/4,
(2001):134.
17.
Moore, 134.
18.
Andrew Gruft, Introduction,
in Substance over Spectacle:
contemporary Canadian
architecture, ed. Andrew Gruft,
(Vancouver, 2005) 15
19.
Frederic Lasserre was the
director of the School of
Architecture at the University
of British Columbia from 1946
to 1961. As an architect
educated in Canada and Swit-
zerland he was instrumental
for the introduction of modern
architecture in Vancouver.
20.
Windsor Liscombe, 30
21.
Arthur Kroker, Technology
and the Canadian Mind,
(Montreal, 1996) 8.
13
FABRICATION / FABRICATED ECOLOGIES
Material Performance
Craft + Building
While timbers formed by natural growth retain a place in todays building
industry, monolithic sawn wood stocks are increasingly being replaced by
composites, stranded and laminated components. New digital wood fabrica-
tion methods promote environmentally responsible architecture and make
complex timber structures more e cient and aordable. Tis transformation
is enabled by digital control systems coupled to automated fabrication and
direct manufacturing systems.
Moving beyond the replication of identical parts, new wood process-
ing technologies challenge conventional notions of economies of scale that
assume mass production of unied, standardized building elements. Wood
structures are no longer limited to repetitive structures of equal parts and
repeated connection details. Tese new technologies oer components with
improved performance and result in designs that change the way wood is
conceived. Moving beyond standardization, new geometries oer formal and
spatial exibility and adaptability.
44 Deform House
THOM FAULDERS

Beige Design
50 Solid Wood-Wall Cabin
+ Outdoor Theater Roof Structure
OLIVER NEUMANN

University of British Columbia
56 Time + Place
The Politics of Designing with Wood
MICHAEL GREEN

mcfarlaneGreen architecture + design
64 Corelam
CHRISTIAN BLYT

GreenHus Design
68 Wood Wave Panel System
BRIAN WOUDSTRA

StructureCraft Builders Inc
16 Ahmanson Founders Room
The Music Center, Los Angeles
HAGY BELZBERG

Belzberg Architects

22 BURST*003 Housing Prototype
DOUGLAS GAUTHIER

SYSTEMarchitects LLC
30 Mass Produced Customization
OMER ARBEL

Omer Arbel Design Ofce
34 Niagara Credit Union at Virgil
PHILIP BEESLEY

University of Waterloo
40 Canonbury Canopy
MICHAEL STACEY

Michael Stacey Architects
University of Nottingham
17
Te Ahmanson Founders Room is a 2,500 ft
2
addition buried in the rst level
of subterranean parking at Te Music Center in downtown Los Angeles.
Te sunken location of the room coupled with an almost clandestine preoccu-
pation with exclusivity by the Centers founders helped to orient the design
objectives of the rm. We pursued the development of sensual lighting schemes
and unique applications of material and texture to create a warm place of
respite between the congested city streets and the brimming communal areas of
Te Music Center on event nights.
Most interesting for this exhibition is the marriage of two seemingly
dichotomous components: computer generated means of development and
fabrication as well as the visceral predictions of aective architectural qualities,
primarily light and warmth. Te design for the Ahmanson Founders Room
ties together various architectural elements through a series of quantitative
relationships. Working primarily with the at nature of wood panels, there
were simultaneous pursuits to develop three-dimensional textures from two-
dimensional data as well as operational devices set in place to control one
data set through the functions of another.
While not contained within a single parametric model, certain piece-
meal eorts to cross software applications yielded new insights into ways of
extracting information from various le types and data sets and into ways of
using that information as input in alternate devices. Te versatility aorded
by employing loosely attached systems of rigorous parametric relationships
stems from the inherent lack of limitations imposed by the use of a single
software application. Te images created for the wall panels eschew the
transcendent, classical qualities of visual art in favour of exposing geometric
entities which yield very blue collar information such as size, density and
other more determinable data.
1 Ahmanson Founders Room
Custom millwork furniture at
lounge entry
Hagy Belzberg
Belzberg Architects
Ahmanson Founders Room
The Music Center, Los Angeles
FUTUREWOOD
18 BELZBERG ARCHITECTS
2 Diagram
Morphological evolution of the
component pieces
19 AHMANSON FOUNDERS ROOM
3 View of Lounge
Perforated wall panels beneath
the rippled ceiling canopy
4 Entrance view
Ascending from parking garage
20
5 Lounge Seating
Spatial and material cohesion of the lounge and all of its components both spatially and materially
6 Entrance View
The Ahmanson Founders Room from the underground parking structure
BELZBERG ARCHITECTS
21
Te two-dimensional diagram of the ceiling is the root modier of sectional
proles and textures throughout the space. While subtle shifts in the line work
of the ceiling diagram alter adjacent diagrams only slightly, parameters and
operators introduced at a ner level in the hierarchy of relationships further
disguise the results direct correlation with the base diagram.
Whatever the extent of dierences between components of the nished
room may be, there is a resounding aura of connectivity between texture, material,
color and light. Te Founders Room design should be seen as an attempt to judge
objectively the ratio of cohesion between quantitative design techniques and
the overall architectural experience.

7 Hinge Point
Ceiling surface folding down to
become the wall separating the
lounge and garage entrance
AHMANSON FOUNDERS ROOM
23
In the unstable conditions of contemporary culture, there are a number of
architectural entities that come armed with ingenuity and imagination, rather
than prescription or moral crises, and that are curious about ways to use
practice, energy and ecologies as means of re-conceiving the economies and
aesthetics of building. System contributes to this culture: standing on the
shoulders of our contemporaries to contribute signicant ideas. Te practice
seeks to sideline traditional hierarchies, giving precedence to the negotiations
of the street, and produces work that privileges the way things work over
the way they look. Tis engagement necessitates a focus on spaces that are
multi-layered, overlapping, and intertwining; on systems consisting of vary-
ing constituencies, economies, and on environments that may be concrete or
intangible. Te practice is fueled by a transformative energy which is also its
foundation and may be summarized as the belief in theoretical and material
experimentation and in a constant search for the innovation of the architects
role in both building and culture.
BURST* housing exists as a prototype on the east coast of Australia.
It is a kit home in which each piece is pre-cut, numbered, delivered to site and
assembled. BURST* provides an alternative to the mass-produced versions
of domestic life that reduce architecture to ever-expanding variations on the
trailer. Instead, this house suggests that an innite array of expanding geom-
etries and forms can engage our contemporary notions of domesticity and
addresses the need to negotiate between the multiple and disparate ideas that
dene our environments.
Te house investigated here reconsiders the process of building the
house, and uses computer technologies to expand the range of architectural
form for inexpensive domestic construction. With the aid of digital processes,
the prototypes complex geometry and form can be responsive, both to natural
Douglas Gauthier
SYSTEMarchitects llc
BURST*003 Housing Prototype
FUTUREWOOD
1 BURST*003 Housing
Axonometric diagram
showing assembly
24 DOUGLAS GAUTHIER
forces on the site and to the program. Tis system produces a low-energy
house that uses construction materials and labor in a highly e cient manner.
Te e ciency of the BURST* prototype, which can be called its lightness,
reects the connected human, community and world conditions embodied
in this house. Te house has the appearance of lightness in terms of weight
and color and it engages a mode of living that is light or e cient and concen-
trated on use, not excess. Te personal spaces are compact and e cient, using
all windows and vents instrumentally to provide necessary light and aid in
climate control. Te sleeping areas are quiet with low and soft illumination
from the clerestory above and the vents to the rear allow for the ow of air
through the sleeping spaces. Te undercroft of the house provides an entirely
functional secondary space that may be used as a play space in the rain, a
storage space or a welcome area when arriving at the house.
In occupying the lot, the house is thoughtful in its orientation, considering
sun, wind and humidity in order that these conditions add to the productivity
of the house, rather than remain insignicant. Trough a series of carefully
planned slits and gaps, light and air enter the house, providing necessary condi-
tions for living and sleeping. Globally, the house occupies this same model of
lightness in material, weight and waste. Te plywood that supports and encloses
the house is light-weight and partially recycled. Te laser cutter allows for the
wood to be cut so e ciently that the scrap is reduced to a minimum (5% unused).
2 Daylighting strategies
Existing paradigms of
prefabrication have their limits.
This means that social status
and stigma and a less than
innocent history are bound into
a container, trailer or mobile
home technologies. The system
investigated here rethinks the
process of building the home
before the idea of home is
laden with the image of home.
25
Te BURST* project also exemplies a new spatial relationship between
inside and outside and successfully spatializes the outdoors. Te deliberate
overlaps, gaps and slits within the buildings skin lead ones eye obliquely to
capture the surrounding landscape, eectively interiorizing the exterior. Te
human gure moves within, over and under the folded skin, ambiguously
occupying inside and outside. Te ribs that serve as the support system of
the house ow from inside to outside, blurring the distinction between in
and out, in the manner of chiaroscuro in Renaissance painting. Te changing
depth of the ribs subtly orders the space along the changing grid, serving as
a marker of both structure and program and lending what has been called a
gothic condition of laciness. Each point of rib overlap has a light xture with
a single chrome-dome bulb that reinforces the patterning and order of varia-
tion embedded in the structure of the house.
Te geometry of the house is generated and controlled by intentionally
congured sections. Using dierent performative and manipulatable means,
each section is made to balance the relationship between the interior program,
exterior conditions and environmental parameters. Te sections operate like
the foci of an ellipse and are the control points of the overall form of the house.
However, they do not exist as distinct moments for the house to be experienced
separately, but rather ow and pause and disappear into the overall structure.
Te design process is thus a choreography of conditions and constitutes
an evolution beyond the compositional or funtionalist/Taylorist conditions
of Modernism.
BURST*003 HOUSING PROTOTYPE
3 Rib system
Diagram showing formation
and variation of changing rib
structure
26
While it is wholly considered and carefully e cient, the design of BURST*
leaves room for a human and intuitive condition. Certainly assigning thickness
to the choreographed massing requires not only structural consideration,
but it is also a responsive responsive process. Tere is an absence of measure-
ment on the job site since all pieces arrive on site measured. Assembling
them requires not only the numerical precision of a jigsaw puzzle but also
the intuition of look and feel. Inasmuch as George Hersey makes clear the
Baroques sense of e ciency and use of symmetry, responsive architectural
methods are, in fact, the essence of e ciency and in direct opposition to
commercial cultures reductive reading of Modernism. In this construct, the
control given to the builder is reduced and replaced by digital processes that
allow for a level of control that choreographs the making as well as the form.
When these accounts of intentionality-driven space are geometrically
recongured, the resulting form produces an innite collection of changing
sections. Te space of the house thus exists in a constant negotiation between
one section and another; the space is derived, not mandated. Life indoors is
lived between these possibilities, always in a state of becoming.
BURST*.003 was completed in 2005 and is being developed into a
responsive parametric housing system that is earthquake, hurricane and ood
resistant. SYSTEM is developing patent applications for the project including
X-Clip mechanisms, delivery systems as well as the environmental, structural
and programmatic parameters. Tis would allow the self-similar engineered
project to respond to other climates, sites and programs. Tus, the project is not
simply a single unit, but becomes a range of solutions.
4 Design Model
View from west
27
6 North Elevation
7 Single-level plan
28 DOUGLAS GAUTHIER
8 Variations of housing assembly
9 X-Clip mechanisms
10 Construction process
Column pouring
11 Construction process
Interior partitions
29 BURST*003 HOUSING PROTOTYPE
12 Construction process
Assembly of prefabricated wood elements
13 Finished construction
Entry sequence
14 Completed housing prototype
Finished structure with facade treatment: south-facing elevation
31
Two projects in the prototype stage illustrate new customization possibilities
in high-end manufacturing. People are tired of duplicated objects (regardless
of how exquisite they may be) and crave the possibility of customization as
a way of giving meaning to objects. Even low tech CNC or molded plywood
technology, if applied creatively, can be set up to produce items that dier
from each other in every iteration within the same production run, without
compromising e cient industrial production protocol. As a parameter for
an industrial design exploration, this sensibility results in the emergence of
fascinating formal possibilities.
The 1.1 shelf
Designed by Omer Arbel in 2003. Produced by Some Furniture in small batches
2003-2005. Finalist, D&AD Yellow Pencil Award.

Te 1.1 shelf was designed designed by Omer Arbel in 2003 and produced
by Some Furniture in small batches between 2003 and 2005. Te design
was a nalist for the D&AD Yellow Pencil Award. Te 1.1 shelf is a stor-
age system which diers in size and conguration in each instance of its
production. It is designed to be mounted in one of two ways; against a wall,
in which case the 4 oset allows book spines in the back row to be visible
behind those in the front row, or freestanding in a room, in which case book
spines are accessible from both sides of the shelf.
It is composed of two simple modular units designed to be cut on a
standard two axis CNC machine: a horizontal module (9x 9x 1 plywood
with a 1 x 9 x 1/4 depression) and a vertical module (14 x 9 x 1 ply-
wood). A client species the total wall area. An algorithm applies a set of
Omer Arbel
Omer Arbel Design Ofce
Mass Produced Customization
FUTUREWOOD
1 The 1.1 shelf
Front view
32
geometrical rules to this area. Te algorithm has a built-in randomization
engine that ensures a unique and never repeated combination of vertical and
horizontal modules. Tese are fed to the CNC machine, packaged and shipped
to the client. Te resulting spatial matrix has interesting formal complexity.
The 4.0 screen
Designed by Omer Arbel in 2005, the 4.0 screen is a room divider in the
loosest sense of the word. Te formal exploration focuses on creating an
implied separation of space only, without actually performing a visual
obstruction or acoustic partition. Te 4.0 screen is a more sophisticated
exploration of the mass-produced customization concept born with the 1.1 shelf.
Te screen is composed of three simple curved rib components lami-
nated from thick wood veneers. When repeated, interweaved and mirrored,
these three pieces create tremendous formal complexity.
Large sheets of thick veneers are molded on one of two molds, each with
a dierent radius. A three-axis CNC machine then selectively cuts the ribs
from these sheets of material. Dierent congurations of the screen can be
achieved by varying the location of the cut along the curve, the selection of
one of the two radii and the length of the rib cut. Also, the size of the instal-
lation can be controlled by the number of repeating rib segments cut to form
the screen panels (i.e. a three panel screen, a four panel screen, etc.). A client
species the length of the screen. An algorithm applies a set of geometrical
rules to this length. Te algorithm has a built-in randomization engine that
ensures a unique and never repeated combination of rib length, position
along the materials radius and selection of radii. Tese are fed to the CNC
machine, cut from pre-laminated stock, packaged and shipped to the client.
Te resulting spatial matrix has an advanced formal complexity.
OMER ARBEL
2 The 1.1 shelf
Detail showing layered
assembly
33 MASS PRODUCED CUSTOMIZATION
3 4.0 Screen
Extended and folded conguration
35
Te new banking centre of the Niagara Credit Union at Virgil stands on
a site that acts as the gateway to the old town of Niagara-on-the-Lake,
Ontario, while fronting a new suburban development. A key requirement
of the project was to conserve the historic character of the area and enhance
the fragile balance of surrounding agricultural lands, all the while accom-
modating the towns wish for new development and strong commerce.
Te architects were invited to consider practical questions about authentic-
ity and substancehow could enduring, rooted qualities be achieved using
lightweight commercial construction?
Te project team pursued hybrid qualities. Key design strategies used
a minimum of material while oering an experience of depth. A lightweight
structural system employing a hovering basketwork canopy of interlink-
ing laminated and stranded-timber members was developed for the public
spaces. Tese elements link arms to form a lightweight structural meshwork
supporting the main roof and extending outward to the exterior. Tall, branch-
ing timber columns support this structure. A massive column type was
conceived using exposed glue-laminated young-growth softwood lumber
grouped in offset cruciform bundles. Repeating arrays of these columns
framed the main hall and stood as a series of open groves around the exterior.
Te columns frame the heart of the buildinga light-lled great hall.
A front veranda populated by elds of exterior columns running along outdoor
walkways give shade and create a streetscape that encourages interaction
with the public. Reinforcing this skeleton, thin skins of ledgerock and lime-
stone were manipulated in order to present a topography of elongated,
folded planes. Tese surfaces extend the thickness of enclosing walls.
1 Niagara Credit Union
View of main hall with pergola
in foreground and drive-
through canopy behind
Philip Beesley
University of Waterloo
Niagara Credit Union at Virgil
FUTUREWOOD
36 PHILIP BEESLEY
2 Niagara Credit Union
Cruciform glue-laminated columns in exterior pergola; main hall framing visible behind
37
Te massive ceiling of the central hall is composed of clusters of thin
vertical vanes of stained spruce, creating a darkened lining whose depth plays
against the sun-lled space within. Te meshwork created by the linked
upper branches of the column system in the main hall, together with
slatted shades supported by the outer veranda structures, make a lter
that modulates direct light. Te structure employs engineered wood trusses
for framing the main plenum integrated with light steel bracing and framed
decking for outlying spaces.
Te interior acts as a convivial town square lined by a variety of services
and amenities. Reinforcing personal relationships with members of the
Credit Union, the o ces of personal nancial advisors, commercial o cers
and banking assistants all look directly into the space. On the second level,
glass-fronted spaces for professional o ces overlook the hall.
Te new building stands close to the edge of Virgils major street,
reinforcing pedestrian footpaths. Timber veranda shelters provide a nearly
continuous perimeter to the facility, supporting exterior parking, drive-in
banking and service-entry circulation. Tis site design invites future develop-
ments in the town to join in a close-knit main street approach, restoring a
lively community of shop fronts that used to relate to the sidewalk. Parking is
integrated in a tartan-grid of planted areas lying behind the main street edge.
Te approach contrasts with large highway-scale setbacks that have charac-
terized the recent development along this arterial.
NIAGARA CREDIT UNION AT VIRGIL
3 Concept Rendering
Glue-laminated columns and
ceiling treatment consisting of
thin vertical vanes of stained
spruce
38 PHILIP BEESLEY
39 NIAGARA CREDIT UNION AT VIRGIL
7 Detail view
Final installation of columns
and integration into ceiling
treatment
4 Front elevation
Entrance canopy view from
street
5 Great hall at night
Exterior view from parking
area, left (below)
6 Great hall
Framed view of landscape
beyond
41
Schools or departments of Architecture have an enormous and underused
potential for engaging with industry and professional practice and for working
directly with their regions and local communities. Tis project, a canopy for
a local primary school in the London Borough of Islington, was an indirect
product of a Summer School held at the Department of Architecture and
Spatial Design, London Metropolitan University. Canonbury School, a lo-
cal primary school built in the late nineteenth century, needed an outdoor
classroom for 4 to 5 year old pupils to enable their full teaching curriculum
to be undertaken outdoors. Te purpose of the canopy is to shelter children
from the sun as well as the rain. Te shelter also supports part of the schools
sustainable transport policy encouraging parents and children to walk or cycle
to school. Second year architecture students consulted with governors, teach-
ers, children and school keepers a wide range of designs were discussed and
the priorities of the pupils and teachers did not necessarily match.
Te nal design is collaboration between the students, Michael Stacey
Architects, tutors, clients and end users, ably facilitated by structural engineer
Tim Lucas of Price and Myers 3D Engineering. Te design comprised three
semi-monocoque units prefabricated in the department and transported
to site. Te semi-monocoque units, measuring 1.2 by 5.8 meters overall,
comprise bulk heads on 18mm ply with two skins of 12mm ply. Te birch
veneer ply was sourced from a certied and managed forest in Eastern Europe.
Timber merchants James Latham sponsored the supply of the ply. Te canopy
cantilevers in all directions and the cantilever measures 3.6 meters to the front.
Te canopy is located to gain maximum benet from the existing brick wall.
Michael Stacey
University of Nottingham
Canonbury Canopy
FUTUREWOOD
1 Canonbury Canopy
A new outdoor classroom for
Canonbury Primary School,
Islington, London
42
Michael Stacey Architects in conjunction with London Metropolitan
University took on the role of Architect, Project Manager, Main Contactor
and Specialist Subcontractor for the joinery. Trade contractors installed con-
crete foundations, steel columns and the single ply dark grey PVC waterproof
membrane. Te students and sta fabricated the plywood units. Te design
was transferred from Microstation to the plywood using full-scale templates
that enabled the curved prole to be accurately and consistently achieved. Te
steelworker, Michael Wilson, proved invaluable onsite, lending his experience
to the enthusiastic architecture students. His assistance was essential as the
steelwork and the plywood units work together to form one structure, which
depends on very tight tolerances. Te canopy was completed by the applica-
tion of a single ply waterproof membrane and simply detailed, translucent,
polycarbonate roof lights. Te canopy has been designed as a permanent
structure that can be readily maintained by the school keeper. Te physical
excitement of realising the canopy proved to be a unique learning experi-
ence for those involved, providing a respect for artisans and a condence in
the students own decision making, which hopefully will remain with them
throughout their careers. Te school children now enjoy the shelter of the
canopy, condent in their own imaginations.
MICHAEL STACEY
2 Transporting the units
The rst unit leaving London
Metropolitan University. On a
low budget, a small truck was
used to deliver the units to site.
3 Fabrication of units
Students and staff assembling
the semi-monocoque modular
units in the courtyard of London
Metropolitan University
4 Construction process
The canopy was designed to
be assembled without the use
of a crane
43 CANONBURY CANOPY
5 Construction process
The central module was
the rst to be bolted to the
galvanized steel posts
6 Construction process
The outer canopy modules
cantilever from the steelwork,
which meant tolerances had to
be very tightly controlled
7 Completed canopy
The reception class enjoying
their new outdoor classroom,
which is used to teach a full
curriculum, from reading to
role-play
45
In this 3rd oor addition to a house in San Francisco, CA, completed in
2006, the program requires that most new walls remain devoid of architec-
tural detail in order to maximize available surface areas for the owners
vast art collection. Terefore, the viable area for design investigation is
the ceiling plane.
A geometric pattern has been invented that visually deforms the ceiling
plane producing a shifting presence of valleys and bulges. Designed to sheathe
the entire top oor, this lining unies the spaces with constantly alternating
gurations that emerge in time as the viewer passes through the spaces.
Rather than pre-establishing heightened zones of deformation, our
eorts focused on providing a random distribution of lines that, when
viewed from dierent vantage points, would create alignments between the
meandering lines. Dened by a set of algorithmic rules, each ceiling plank is
individually cut using digital milling tools, in collaboration with the Oakland-
based Studio SUM. As the viewer passes through the spaces, the ceiling
pattern appears to realign at all times, making the viewers presence in space
the central motivation of the project.
Thom Faulders
Beige Design
Deform House
FUTUREWOOD
1 Deform House
View of nished interior
46 THOM FAULDERS
3 Exploded axonometric
Diagram identifying placement
and relationship between
architectural elements
2 Interior view
Digital rendering
47 DEFORM HOUSE
4 Front view
The visible geometric pattern
illustrates the connection
between private and public
space
5 Interior view
Showing the juxtaposition of
the blank walls housing the
art collection with the visually
deforming pattern of the
ceiling plane
48 THOM FAULDERS
Padius of filleted corners 2"
l: UNDLPL|NG GP|D
M|NOP SPAC|NG 8"
(possible locations of inflection points)
MA1OP SPAC|NG 8"
(maximum variation within a line)
2X MA1OP SPAC|NG l6"
(maximum width within a board)
2: ANGULAP CONSTPUCT|ON
3: SMOOTH|NG
POSS|8LL CONSTPUCT|ON ANGLLS:
l0
45
0
( ` always situated
between angles)
L|NL DLP|vAT|ON TAXONOM
3: TPANSPOPMAT|ON
Padius Portion of initial length 65%
6 Line pattern development
Diagram illustrating the
generation of the deformation
pattern
7 Materials
MDF custom cut boards
8 Skylight detail
Digital rendering
49 DEFORM HOUSE
S
E
C
T
O
R

1
A
S
E
C
T
O
R

2
A
S
E
C
T
O
R

2
B
S
E
C
T
O
R

2
C
S
E
C
T
O
R

3
A
S
E
C
T
O
R

3
B
Z
E
R
O
S
E
C
T
O
R

1
B
S
E
C
T
O
R

1
C
Z
E
R
O
Z
E
R
O
Z
E
R
O
Z
E
R
O
Z
E
R
O
Z
E
R
O
Z
E
R
O
S
E
C
T
O
R

2
D
S
E
C
T
O
R

4
S
E
C
T
O
R

5
S
E
C
T
O
R

6
B
S
E
C
T
O
R

6
C
SECTOR 6A
SECTOR 7C SECTOR 7B
S
E
C
T
O
R

7
A
ZERO ZERO
1A.1
2A.1
2A.2
2A.3
2A.4
2A.5
2A.6
2A.7
2A.8
2A.9
2A.10
2A.11
2A.12
2A.13
2A.14
2A.15
2A.16
2A.17
2A.18
2A.19
2A.20
2A.21
2A.22
2A.23
2A.24
2A.25
2A.26
2A.27
2A.28
2A.29
2A.30
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6
4.7
4.8
4.9
4.10
4.11
4.12
4.13
4.14
4.15
4.16
4.17
4.18
4.19
4.20
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
5.6
5.7
5.8
5.9
5.10
5.11
5.12
5.13
5.14
5.15
6A.1
6A.2
6A.3
6A.4
6A.5
6A.6
4.21
4.22
4.23
4.24
4.25
6B.1
6B.2
6B.3
6B.4
6B.5
6B.6
6B.7
6B.8
6B.9
6B.10
6B.11
6B.12
6B.13
6B.14
6B.15
6B.16
6B.17
6B.18
6B.19
6B.20
6B.21
6B.22
6B.23
6B.24
6B.25
6C.1 6C.2
6C.3
6C.4
6C.5
6C.6
6C.7
6C.8
6C.9
6C.10
6C.11
6C.12
6C.13
6C.14
6C.15
6C.16
6C.17
6C.18
6C.19
6C.20
6C.21
6C.22
6C.23
6C.24
6C.25
6C.27
7C.1
7C.2
7C.3
7C.4
7C.5
7C.6
7C.7
7C.8
7C.9
7C.10
7C.11
7C.12
7C.13
7C.14
7C.15
7B.1
7B.2
7B.3
7B.4
7B.5
7B.6
7B.7
7B.8
7B.9
7B.10
7B.11
7B.12
7B.13
7B.14
7B.15
7A.1
7A.2
7A.3
7A.4
7A.5
7A.6
7A.7
7A.8
7A.9
7A.10
7A.11
7A.12
7A.13
7A.14
7A.15
2B.1
2B.2
2B.3
2B.4
2B.5
2B.6
2B.7
2B.8
2B.9
2B.10
2B.11
2B.12
2B.13
2B.14
2B.15
2B.16
2C.1 3A.1
3A.2
3A.3
3B.1
3B.2
3B.3
3A.4
3A.5
3A.6
3A.7
3A.8
3A.9
3A.10
3A.11
3A.12
3A.13
3A.14
3A.15
3A.16
3A.17
3B.4
3B.5
3B.6
3B.7
3B.8
3B.9
3B.10
3B.11
3B.12
3B.13
3B.14
3B.15
3B.16
3B.17
2C.2
2C.3
2C.4
2C.5
2C.6
2C.7
2C.8
2C.9
2C.10
2C.11
2C.12
2C.13
2C.14
2C.15
2C.16
2D.1
2D.2
2D.3
2D.4
2D.5
2D.6
2D.7
2D.8
2D.9
2D.10
2D.11
2D.12
2D.13
2D.14
2B.17
2B.18
2B.19
2B.20
2B.21
2B.22
2B.23
2B.24
2B.25
2B.26
2B.27
2B.28
2B.29
2B.30
1B.1 1C.1
1C.2
1C.3
1C.4
1C.5
1C.6
1C.7
1C.8
1C.9
1C.10
1C.11
1C.12
1C.13
1C.14
1C.15
1C.16
1C.17
1C.18
1C.19
1B.2
1B.3
1B.4
1B.5
1B.6
1B.7
1B.8
1B.9
1B.10
1B.11
1B.12
1B.13
1B.14
1B.15
1B.16
1B.17
1B.18
1B.19
1A.2
1A.3
1A.4
1A.5
1A.6
1A.7
1A.8
1A.9
1A.10
1A.12
1A.11
1A.13
1A.14
1A.15
1A.16
1A.17
1A.18
1A.19
9 Ceiling plan
Installation layout
11 Finished ceiling
close-up view
10 Installation view
View of unnished ceiling
51
Te cabin design is based on research into the spatial and environmental
implications of solid wood-wall panel construction methods. Material
characteristics, environmental performance and spatial congurations
particular to solid wood-wall construction are explored in the context of the
British Columbia building culture and the particular economic and environ-
mental conditions of the region.
Te cabin design utilizes the solid wood-wall panels structural and
spatial potential within the context of a design that is particular to its camp-
ground context at the UBC Research Forest. Despite the larger volume
necessary to accommodate the program of the extended cabin, the placement
and conguration of the compact design are intended to maintain the
character of the site.
Te existing cabins are characterized by their simplicity, basic congura-
tion and casual relationship to the site. Te cabins are built as compact 1
1/2
story volumes with limited openings. Te basic volumetric development is
reected in the simple programmatic organization of the interior. Privileging
their function as shelters and sleeping houses, no clear reference to view is
made in the cabins orientation and inner conguration. Rather than promot-
ing views from the cabin interior, the placement of the cabin as part of the
campground ensemble allows for views and for exposure to the surrounding
landscape from the building exterior.
Te new cabin design uses continuous 3-dimensional bands of solid
wood-wall panels to congure the cabins in plan and volume. Tese systems
of parallel panel bands form building sections incorporating exterior walls,
roof surfaces, oors and stairs. Osets in plan and section control the
Oliver Neumann
University of British Columbia
Solid-Wood-Wall Cabin
Solid Wood-Wall Cabin
+ Outdoor Theater Roof Structure
FUTUREWOOD
1 Outdoor Theatre
Roof Structure
Concept rendering
2 Solid-Wood-Wall Cabin
Concept rendering of
main facade
52 OLIVER NEUMANN
building orientation, sun exposure and views. Te volume of the new cabin is
visually disconnected from the ground and openings are limited to maintain
the basic appearance. Te interior conguration reects the basic program of
the cabin with private bedrooms and small communal spaces.
Te spatial and structural conguration, with its cross-sectional bands
of solid wood-wall panels, results in opaque east and west faades; inll
panels at the short ends and in setbacks of the cabin volume provide
openings for natural light and ventillation. Rather than responding to views
into the surrounding landscape, these openings and the room orientations
follow the conguration of the basic program. Faades are designed to
downplay the required size of the new cabin and its signicantly increased
program. Te building volume is oriented to allow for southern exposure of
the group spaces and related passive solar gain while the placement of the
cabin away from the berm protects existing trees and groundcover charac-
teristic of the forested context. Individual bedrooms are designed as sleeping
quarters with limited views of the surroundings to privilege the use of group
spaces and to foreground outdoor experiences at the camp.
Te solid wood-wall cabin at the UBC Research Forest is a collabo-
ration of the UBC Malcolm Knapp Research Forest, the Hundegger
Maschinenbau GmbH based in Hawangen, Germany, the UBC School
of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and the UBC Centre for
Advanced Wood Processing. Te design research is funded by UBC
Research Forest and supported by Hans Hundegger Maschinenbau GmbH,
Hawangen, Germany.
3 Spatial diagram of cabin
Isometric projection
4 Cabin facade
Main elevation
5 Panel transportation
53 SOLID WOOD-WALL CABIN
6 Panel assembly
7 Panel fabrication
54 OLIVER NEUMANN
Outdoor Theater Roof Structure
Te Outdoor Teatre roof structure project explores digital fabrication tech-
nology to generate designs consistent with the conditions of the place of their
intervention. CNC timber framing software and CNC fabrication technol-
ogy are utilized for the design of a material-e cient wooden roof structure
that meets the requirements of the local program and site while investigating
the potential of globally available digital fabrication technologies.
CNC fabrication technologies can produce new spatial and material
expressions consistent with the notion of complex environments. Given
the capacity to create ever-smaller building modules and spatially complex
building components e ciently, CNC-fabricated wood building elements
can be designed to meet the specic and changing requirements of individual
building projects without sacricing e ciency of material use and assembly.
Te exibility and adjustability of CNC fabrication processes allow for an
e cient application of mass-customization technologies to the exploration
of formal and spatial conditions that correspond to contemporary ideas of
complexity and to the openness, individuality and self-expression of contem-
porary living conditions. With their inherently sustainable and economical
characteristics, contemporary wood products, fabrication and production
methods can be used to generate site-specic designs. While the architecture
generated using contemporary CNC timber framing technology benets
from the importation of European timber framing techniques and detail-
ing, the technology is not limited to revisiting familiar wood structures and
traditional joinery. Rather, contemporary fabrication technology provides a
basis for design explorations specic to the economic and cultural context
of regional ecologies.
8 Truss study
9 Side view
Side view of roof structure at
Existing Outdoor Theatre
10 Full-scale joint study
55 OUTDOOR THEATER ROOF STRUCTURE
Te Outdoor Teater roof structure is rooted equally in its local condi-
tions and larger ecological processes. While the design aims to satisfy the
specic needs of program, climate and locale, the project equally considers
a scale beyond its immediate site and context of intervention by referencing
complex processes that inuence and are aected by the design.
Te roof design takes large scale CNC fabrication technologies as a
starting point for innovative wood construction methods. Te broader aim is
to promote sustainable wood building designs through e ciency of material
and assembly. Te light-weight structure with wood-to-wood connections
is assembled from short 2 x 4 wood sections into a 25 x 35 roof that is
suspended from existing columns. Corrugated translucent panels protect
the stage area of the theater from rain and snow while allowing sunlight and
shadows from the surrounding trees to animate the wood structure. Te
design is developed from preliminary studies of a non-hierarchical space
truss system. Later iterations reect the wood joints capacity to accommo-
date compression-based load conditions. A perforated plywood diaphragm
provides rotational stability.
In addition to considerations of fabrication and construction, the design
introduces a scale independent of the size and resolution of the wood struc-
ture. While the structural logic of the wood structure responds equally to the
forces in the roof and to the orientation of the stage towards the audience,
the oversize leaf pattern of the plywood diaphragm introduces imagery that
points beyond the scale of the particular intervention and its forested context.
11 Plywood diaphragm
Illustration of oversize leaf
pattern used to relate the
structure to its surrounding
context
12 Concept rendering
Front View
13 Study Model
Preliminary Roof Design
57
McfarlaneGreens new terminal for the Ottawa airport explores the politics
of selecting timber in large public buildings. Te design illustrates how the
acceptance of public timber structures across Canada is evolving and how
managing the political process within client, stakeholder and design teams
is critical to the successful use of what is arguably Canadas most approp-
riate building material.
Te design, which was completed in 2003, introduced timber in a
major public building while searching for a new approach to the functional
planning of an airport terminal. Te proposed layout radically changed the
sectional properties of the traditional airport by opening up the center of the
building. Tis enhanced overall passenger orientation and the experience on
arrivals and departures.
On any given project, there is a limited pool of political capital that the
design team can expend to promote an innovative agenda. In the case of
the policy- and politically-charged airport design, timber was generally not
considered for three fundamental reasons:
1. Sustainable design was still a new concept in mainstream eastern
Canadian design.
2. Misconceptions regarding the cost of wood structures. Hybrid
wood and steel systems were generally not considered as cost-
eective and elegant solutions.
3. Given the general lack of experience, engineering o ces do not
support heavy timber design.
Michael Green
mcfarlaneGreen architecture + design
Time + Place
The politics of designing with wood
FUTUREWOOD
1 Prince George Airport
Phase I
Custom casting
58
Te earlier Prince George Airport had been an exception to this reticence;
from the outset, the client insisted on the importance of wood in the design
of the terminal building. In a climate of increasing steel prices, a timber
structure proved to be the most economical sollution for the design. By
introducing new wood building technology in the design of the public build-
ing, the design of the new terminal at Prince George Airport highlights the
signicance of wood building culture in northern British Columbia.
In 2005, the project for the expansion of the Ottawa airport provided
another opportunity to test timber in a public building. For this project,
timber from a decrepit pre-World War II aircraft hangar on the Ottawa
Airportconsisting of mainly rst growth BC r in large member sizes
was made available for reuse. Te reclaimed timber was incorporated into
a 200 meter long and 9 meter high exterior glass wall that encloses ramps
leading passengers to their gates. Te project is currently under construction
and will be partially occupied in 2007 and completed in 2008.
MICHAEL GREEN
2 Ottawa Airport Phase I
Steel roof trusses
3 Ottawa Airport Phase I
Truss model
4 Ottawa Airport Phase I
Timber/steel structural study
59 TIME + PLACE
Te Ottawa Airport beneted from the precedent set in Prince George
for timbers aesthetic merit and economy. With the increasing importance
and public acceptance of sustainable design, the concept of reusing timber
from the hangar became a point of pride for the client and the community.
After initial problems with refurbishing the recycled material locally could be
overcome, the reuse of resources from the airport property was considered
exciting and appropriate in 2005 both as an iconic building and a celebration
of wood design. Although the reclaimed wood originated in BC, the choice
of timber was linked to the notion of national unity and ecological stability.
Te use of wood has now become a matter of pride and a statement about
the airports projection of a responsible corporate citizen. Te use of wood
oered a solution for creating a warm, welcoming environment that had not
fully been realized in the steel structure of the phase one terminal design that
was completed in 2003, a time when timber use was met less favorably by
the interested parties.
6 Prince George Airport
Phase I
Column/Beam detail
5 Prince George Airport
Phase I
Departure lounge aireld
elevation
60 MICHAEL GREEN
7 Prince George Airport
Phase II
Arrivals area
8 Prince George Airport
Phase II
Column mock-up
61 TIME + PLACE
9 Prince George Airport
Phase II
Atrium detail
10 Prince George Airport
Phase II
Atrium
62 MICHAEL GREEN
11 Prince George Airport Phase II
Existing wood to be reclaimed from the Airport Hanger
12 Prince George Airport Phase II
Atrium model
63 TIME + PLACE
13 Prince George Airport
Phase II
Recycled timber atrium
14 Prince George Airport
Phase II
Rendering showing reclaimed
timber in ramp corridors
65
Tis paper describes major objectives in the development of Corelam
1
, an
all-wood corrugated plywood product that is currently in its nal stage of
development. Te initial work was presented as Christian Blyts masters
thesis at the Faculty of Interior Architecture and Furniture Design at the
University of Industrial Arts in Helsinki, Finland.
Early applications of the material focused on small-scale use as a
component in a variety of home furnishing items. Subsequent develop-
ments explored the materials potential for high-end building applications,
particularly wall and ceiling panels. Parallel to the development of material
properties, initial research also investigated possible end products. A second
development phase, currently under way, includes the design of a prototype
press to allow for the systematic testing of the nal variables in the manufac-
turing process. Tese include evaluation of temperature, sequencing, moisture,
alternative processes, adhesives, veneers, and core woods. In addition, an
integrated mounting and detailing systems will allow for testing the materials
re rating, acoustic qualities and durability.
The Beginning of Corelam
Te initial development of Corelam at the University of Industrial Arts,
Helsinki was conducted in 1994. Te thesis work encompassed the theoretical
and applied process of laminating the corrugated plywood, the development
of all tooling necessary to achieve 60 x 240 cm sheets of varying thicknesses
and species and the production of prototypes that showcased the materials
intrinsic attributes.
In its present development stage, the material consists of at least three
layers of wooden veneer that are laminated together with the aid of a thermal
Christian Blyt
GreenHus Design
Corelam
FUTUREWOOD
1 Lampshades
Up and Downs Productions
lampshades constructed
of 2 ply Corelam at ICFF
New York 2000
1.
Corelam is a registered
trademark by Christian Blyt
of GreenHus Design
66 CHRISTIAN BLYT
bonding adhesive into dierent radii and proles. At least one layer in
the pile has its grains running perpendicular to the other two layers to
provide structural and dimensional stability. In order to compensate for
the dierently bending radii of the individual layers of veneer, tensioned
backing sheets on both sides of the pile permit the layers of the veneers
to move with low friction, relative to each other, avoiding fracturing. Te
manufacturing method results in a rigid, thermally-set, undulated form.
Initial Product Development
Te initial commercialization of Corelam took place from 1997 until 2002.
At that time, a 24 x 24 cold press was constructed and used to produce
nished panels. Te panels were successfully featured in a variety of products.
Final Development and Testing
Te primary objectives of this project are to design and specify a heated,
semi-automated pilot press and a cost-eective manufacturing process
capable of producing 32 x 32 size sheet. Particular attention will be given to
non-formaldehyde adhesive lms and clear melamine overlays. Another
critical component will be to design, fabricate and eld test an integrated
mounting and detailing system for the panels, which is essential to the
commercial viability of the product. Cost data will be collected throughout
the project in order to allow for an accurate determination of the costs of
producing various options. Final selection of product characteristics will be
based on performance and cost.
2
Te advantages of Corelam include its aesthetic properties, its strength
versus weight ratio, its potential to provide acoustic damping, its versatil-
ity, its use of under-utilized wood species, its high standard of safety for all
applications due to the absence of chemical irritants in the manufacturing
process and its potential as a structural material.
2.
Blyt, C. 1999 Method of
producing a corrugated
construction unit US patent
5,948,198
4 Ceiling panel
perforated Corelam

2 Manufacturing method
Pressing sequence initiates
in the center of the pile
with the rst undulation
individually pressed and
clamped into place
3 Door section
showcasing Corelam in
different applications
67 CORELAM
5 Pilot press
Concept CAD drawing - 2005
6 Veneer press
Standard press with attached 60 x 240 cm metal platens and tooling
69
StructureCraft Builders Inc.s focus on innovative and cost-eective aesthetic
structural sollutions using wood is facilitated by the application digital media
and fabrication methods. Structural engineering design, shop fabrication
and preparation for site installation benet equally from the development of
a detailed 3D model. Despite their geometric complexity, StructureCrafts
projects are developed as pre-fabricated kits of parts to allow for
short erection times.
Parametric modeling and digital fabrication techniques have helped to
customize, fabricate and install the roof deck system of the wood wave roof
for the facility of the skating events for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
Te Richmond Oval Wood Wave Panel System consists of 452 panels
covering an area that measures over 200,000 square feet, with approximately
1300 arched Vees made up of 2x4 lumber, plywood and steel tie-rods.
Te panel geometry varies throughout the roof. Te project benets from a
variety of parametric modeling and digital wood fabrication features. In the
design phase, 3D conceptual models and rendered 3D models of the roof
assembly were used to produce various scenarios that facilitated the form-
nding process. Te 3D data was also used to generate structural engineering
models of the roof assembly.
During the subsequent detailing phase, all components (including arched
lumber, splices, bulkheads, plywood skin, tension ties and connections) were
modeled in 3D. Assembly drawings for architectural and structural review
and revisions as well as shop drawings of the wood wave panel assemblies
were generated from the same 3D model of the structure. In the fabrication
phase, the information from the 3D model will be used to generate machine
data that can be transferred to the wood splice-block and strand production
stations. Files for the CNC production of plywood bulkheads will also be
generated.
Brian Woudstra
Wood Wave Panel System
FUTUREWOOD
StructureCraft Builders Inc.
1 Richmond Oval Arena
Underside of arched lumber
forms the ceiling of arena
for the 2010 Olympic Winter
Games
70 STRUCTURECRAFT
2 Design model
Wood Wave Panels spanning
between main arches of Oval
3 Isolated panel
Design rendering of singular
Wood Wave panel
4 Production
Digitally-controlled nailers for
lumber strand production
71 WOOD WAVE PANEL SYSTEM
6 Full-size panel
Ready for structural testing
5 Prototype panel
Assembled in shop
Digital Practice
Operations + Logics
Digital media and fabrication technologies put forward aordable, e cient
strategies that support exploration of complex new geometries. New tools
for parametric design and building information modeling oer substantial
new qualities to design practice. Generative scripting and form-nding opti-
mization processes are increasingly integrated into standard arrays of design
tools. Dynamic models oer a degree of exibility and coordination never
previously available. Complex orchestration of dependencies and constraints
for individual elements allows detailed development of component arrays
containing highly specialized individual conditions.
An increasing emulation of systems observed in biology and physical
sciences is discernable within many of the projects illustrated here. Tis
capacity for dynamic processes coincides with a paradigmatic shift oered
by information technologies. As systems that readily accommodate custom
features, digitally mediated design processes challenge conventional notions
of economies of scale and aord designers and builders a new formal
and spatial vocabulary.
74 Responsive Surface Structure
ACHIM MENGES

Academy of Art and Design, Offenbach
AA School of Architecture, London

80 The Dry-in House
DOUGLAS HECKER
MARTHA SKINNER

eldofce

Clemson University
86 Digitally Integrated Design/Build
MARTY DOSCHER

morphosis
94 Tailors after Taylorism
KARL DAUBMANN

Ply Architecture
University of Michigan
102 Fast Construction: Slow Architecture
MICHAEL STACEY

Michael Stacey Architects

University of Nottingham
108 Stock Space
SHANE WILLIAMSON

WilliamsonWilliamson
University of Toronto
114 Building C ontinuous Digital Planning
Processes on Timber Infrastructure
CHRISTOPH SCHINDLER

designtoproduction
75
Te project Responsive Surface Structure is based on an experimental,
inductive design approach and has been developed at the department of
Form Generation and Materialisation at the University of Art and Design in
Oenbach, Germany.
Te project aims to create a dierentiated skin structure that can change
its porosity in response to changes in ambient humidity and moisture. Tus
the project instrumentalizes the moisture absorbing properties of wood and
the related surface expansion as a means of embedding climate sensor,
actuator and regulating elements into one very simple component. One
typical example of various biological systems operating on the principle of
surface changes that result from dierential expansion is the pine cone. Te
shape and materiality of the cone are synthesized in such a way that every
cone element is at once the sensing, kinetic and regulating element. Once
it has fallen o the tree, the dry cone awaits a suitably moist condition.
When this is found, the desiccated material of the cone opens and the seeds
are released. What is particularly interesting is that, due to the fact that its
behavioural response is latent in the material, this system works without any
contact with the tree and the opening and closure can be repeated in a large
number of cycles.
In the Responsive Surface Structure project, the complex structure results
from the continuous evolution of small, initially simple components. Te
individual functionality resulting from the interrelation of form, material and
structure of each scale is embedded in this decentralised system. Te moisture
responsive element is articulated as a veneer composite that is attached to the
load-bearing, folded substructure. Tis process can be simulated by a very
thin veneer moistened from one side. With exposure to a high level of
humidity, the veneer swells and the consequent expansion triggers a defor-
mation that opens a gap between the substructure and the veneer scales.
Achim Menges
Academy of Art and Design, Offenbach Germany
AA School of Architecture, London UK
Responsive Surface Structure
FUTUREWOOD
1 Fir cone
Left: Cone in dry state
Right: Cone in moistened state
76 ACHIM MENGES
With the aid of digital tools that are driven through associative geometry
and parametric modeling, the mathematically-dened surfaces are construct-
ed as a variable 3D model which can unfold in a wide range of shapes that
relate to the dierent local, regional and global geometry of the system. Tese
alterations are fundamental for a design process that is constantly adapting
and negotiating the digital components according to environmental factors.
Te project aims at constructing a dierentiated structure, referring to the
principle of the pine cone with its dierentiated scales while maintaining
coherence in the set-up and fabrication of all individual surface elements.
Tus, every component of the structure is based on the manufacturing con-
straints of a folded sheet digitally cut from planar material. Evolution of the
design depends on the denition of this systems internal as well as external
constraints and on information such as the aforementioned manufacturing
possibilities and specic material properties, which are all integrated into the
design process from the beginning.
Te overall geometry is associative and hierarchically subordinated to
the normal direction embedded in the local coordinate systems of the overall,
mathematically-dened surface. In a subsequent step, the component is
distributed over this parametric surface and accordingly adjusts all its indi-
vidual shapes and orientations to the curvature of that surface. As a result,
every element of the structure has unique dimensions, yet it is fully dened
through its geometric associations and related constraints. Te development
2 Beech veneer
Test piece of veneer
(left) and the same piece
moistened (right)
3 Component model
The static component
structure made out of PVC is
clad with a moisture sensitive
layer of veneer. The veneer
employed has the special
ability of changing shape by
reacting to moisture and thus
enables the system to interact
with its environment without
being controlled by electronic
or mechanical divided.
77 RESPONSIVE SURFACE STRUCTURE
4 Parametric host surface
5 Population of components
78 ACHIM MENGES
of a dierentiated structure that is mainly derived from a number of complex
and nonlinear relations, ranging from material behaviour to the thermody-
namics of the environment, requires an adaptive design approach. Using the
versatility of parametric design tools allows for the set-up of a design evolu-
tion in which changes to the system can be made at all times because both
the three-dimensional structure as well as the related cut pattern of each
individual component automatically adapt to changes in the overall system
and vice versa. Finally, this parametric substructure, built up from individual
components, is clad with a moisture sensitive layer of veneer composite. Te
veneer composite developed and employed here is uniquely able to change
shapes by reacting to ambient humidity and moisture and thus enables the
system to interact with its environment without being controlled by electron-
ic or mechanical devices. Changes in ambient humidity facilitate the opening
and closure of the components resulting in dierent degrees of porosity
across the surface. It is a structure and a performative skin in one.

6 Digital production patterns
7 Manufacturing
79
Te components resulting from the digital design process can be directly
manufactured with digital fabrication processes and do not require compli-
cated construction plans; every piece is assembled in a similar way and only
ts its unique position within the predened construction procedure.
At the moment, the research project has advanced to the point of a fully
functional prototype structure in live scale.
RESPONSIVE SURFACE STRUCTURE
8 Model making
9 Manufacturing
10 Manufacturing
81
Te Dry-in House is a mass customized aordable housing system proposed
for the reconstruction eorts in New Orleans following Hurricane
Katrina. Te Dry-in House is designed to get families back to their home
sites quickly by providing the infrastructure that occupants need (shelter,
water, electricity) while at the same time providing the opportunity for each
of the returning families to customize their new home. Te project addresses
ine ciencies and redundancies in emergency housing currently provided by
FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). It is designed to meet the
$60,000 cost of the currently standard-issue, and notorious, FEMA trailer,
but improves upon the FEMA design by providing a solution which:
is permanent rather than temporary. Te house can be nished and
further customized over time rather than disposed of.
reoccupies the owners home site rather than a FEMA ghetto, thereby
bringing the community back together and functioning.
is mass customized rather than mass-standardized allowing the
owner input into the design of their home. Te design is a starter
home rather than an inexible and over-determined one-size-ts-all
solution. Tis also has the benet of giving variation to the reconstruc
tion of New Orleans as opposed to the monotony of mass production.
allows the owners to customize their home further over time with
additional exterior nishes and the subdivision and outt of the
interior.
Douglas Hecker
Martha Skinner
The Dry-in House
eldofce
FUTUREWOOD
1 Collective spirit
The concentrations of
returning families promote
a greater collective spirit
among the community. The
construction process is akin to
a barn raising, making possible
the drying-in of multiple
houses in less than one day.
82
Te Dry-in House is sympathetic to contemporary trends in the manufac-
ture of consumer products that use automated platforms to provide greater
personalization. Te design proposes a system that, once it is in place with
all constraints determined, will provide a degree of design input on the part
of the owner that is currently unavailable in aordable housing in the United
States. Te design seeks to give the owner opportunities for maximum
customization with minimal intervention of the designer.
1
Te outcome is
the designed interaction of the owner and a contemporary rapid manufactur-
ing platform, much like Droog Designs Signature Vase and Issey Miyakes
APOC (A Piece Of Cloth) clothing line. In each of these cases the design
system uses a readily available fabrication platform as a point of departure
and styles a design interaction between consumer and product. Te end user
is given a level of customization and personalization previously unimagined
in contemporary manufacturing.
DOUGLAS HECKER
MARTHA SKINNER
1.
Droog Design,
http://droogdesign.nl/, 2006
2 Framing Strategy
As soon as the trusses arrive
to the homeowners site, they
are raised by the community
3 Enclosure
The Dry-in House is designed
to a 2-0 module so that
standard, readily available
sheet goods can be used for
enclosure; this reduces
the skill level required for
construction and minimizes
waste
83 THE DRY-IN HOUSE
4 Customization
After being dried-in, the house
can be further customized
over time by the owners, both
in plan (with the subdivision of
the plan) and with the interior-
exterior nishes
5 Difference within the community
The Dry-in house is a mass customized house in which homeowners can customize their house by dening the roof and ceiling proles.
Te Dry-in House utilizes plate truss technology and associated
parametric modeling software to engineer and fabricate highly customized
trusses that meet individual preferences. Tis mass customization technology
is employed to create the customized building section of each familys house.
Te truss is not used in its typical manner (spanning over the house), but
rather, it forms the section and superstructure of the house (roof, wall and
oor). Te Dry-in House allows the owner-designer to draw the section of
their new home through a simple to use web-based design program in which
the plan of the home is xed but the section is exible. Tis allows the owner
to customize the section to their specic needs and desires. Because of the
narrow lot congurations in New Orleans, the design maximizes the roof as
a source for natural ventilation and for interior light. In addition, the house is
one room deep. Tis not only provides cross ventilation in all rooms, but also
minimizes reliance on articial HVAC systems.
In contrast to the one-size-ts-all approach to emergency housing,
the Dry-in House proposes a mass-customized shell to bring residents back
to their own home sites in a timely manner. With the Dry-In House, the
owner is supplied with an inhabitable shell that may be customized both
before it is fabricated as well as onsite. Te project can continue to be tted
out over time. As its name implies, the Dry-in House primarily provides a
timely dried-in space which doubles as a customized infrastructure for the
reconstruction of permanent homes and neighborhoods. Tis customized
infrastructure gets residents back to their property quickly. Te dwelling can
be nished by the resident over time, according to each familys preferences,
timeline and means a process that gives the residents a part in the greater
reconstruction eort while allowing for a personalized sollution.
84
DOUGLAS HECKER
MARTHA SKINNER
6 Home-owner input
The displaced residents of New Orleans can design their new houses which are fabricated as they prepare for their return home
7 Environmental control
The homeowner can design the roof and ceiling proles to allow natural lighting and ventilation into the interior spaces
85 THE DRY-IN HOUSE
8 Instructions
Dry-in House owners are sent a one-page worksheet in the mail which outlines steps for beginning to sketch out potential roof and
ceiling plane congurations for their new home
87
Te following text and images represent more than four years of experi-
ence in applying design technology to building projects at Morphosis. Tat
is to say that most of the eort is focused on changing the way designs are
realized. Much of the work has been oriented towards allaying the fear of
complex geometry. But as geometry is only a portion of design, it has to be
understood in the context of broader architectural desires. It must also be
considered in the larger paradigmatic shift brought about by information
technologies in communication, biology and manufacturing.
Design Intent
Morphosis is driven by perceptual qualities and structural characteristics in
equal measure. Some geometric moves happen at a large scale (e.g. roofscapes
related to groundscapes) and rules are established very early and change little
throughout the project. But the forms and spaces one experiences in a project
result from interactions with other constructs such as wall surfaces, with
their own driving system. Some of these interactions achieve desirable results
very early in a project, others dont stop processing even during detail design.
Morphosis application of formal systems is distinguished by the inter-
section of multiple, relatively autonomous systems. Te intent is to generate
more dierentiation than might be possible in a singular, all-encompassing
formal system. Each system has an internal consistency, and the dierence is
realized by intersecting two systems on a bias.
Forms evolve at the same time as the building program, and the two be-
come interrelated. At the Wayne Morse Courthouse in Eugene, Oregon, the
exterior and interior skins wrap the volumes of six courtooms of the building,
Marty Doscher
morphosis
Digitally Integrated Design-Build
FUTUREWOOD
1 Concept model
2 NYC Housing
Analysis surfaces
88
and they also envelop the connective tissue between them. Te desire to
use parametric techniques to maintain these skins arose partly out of the
demand for (sometimes major) program changes that necessitated further
changes in the skin geometry.
The Industry
It is widely accepted that building models can improve collaboration between
traditionally split design and implementation teams. Specically, it is possible
to dissolve the split between conceptual design and technical design, as well
as the split between designer and constructor.
Tis trend includes bringing the designer into direct contact with the
subcontractor. Tis means that the contractor can assist with detailed design,
and it also means that the designer can make more design decisions later into
the process. Since all these decisions are recorded in the medium that is na-
tive to the detailers process, changes do not necessarily require restarting the
detailing process.
Design Model into Construction Model
Whereas the 3D model has for more than a decade been the primary medi-
um for design, it has now permeated construction as well. In design, in-house
3D printing and lasercutting enable daily physical feedback. Tis physicality
is important for team (Architect/Engineer/Contractor/Owner) meetings.
Te 3D printer costs less each year and has become a natural replacement
for the 2D laser printer as a tool for understanding and communicating the
design product.
Understanding + Communicating Intent
Simply saving a transformed coordinate system and making that a part of the
construction documents allows others to better understand the intent. Once
the designer-modeller has made a choice about a relative change in space, that
choice, and not just the resultant points in space, should be communicated.
Geometric Solving
Digital media do not necessarily require that the user operate under system-
atic geometric rigor. In fact, the computers speed of calculation makes much
of the mathematics of geometric construction transparent to the designer.
Perhaps this will lead to a new way of building that does not demand a
reductive look at design. Currently however, the need to maintain desired
formal relationships, while exploring variations, requires a specic manner
of modeling. Primitives are maintained. Edits are kept as operations, so that
the primitives can be remade at will and the operations can be altered and
replayed while designers continue to explore and develop structural charac-
teristics.
MARTY DOSCHER
3 Digital coordination
3D printed connection
4 Geometric Solving
SFB surface pattern
89 DIGITALLY-INTEGRATED DESIGN/BUILD
Part of being able to model in the manner that supports this process
involves dening modeling operations explicitly. In this, it is imperative to
understand that the design process includes anomalies. Systems should be
exible to allow constituents some freedom to break the rules. Even the very
presence of rules causes some deant designers to buck the system; the next
generation of tools will likely address how to make the rules of a rule-driven
formal system more transparent.
1
Assembly
A given assembly is composed of multiple trades. Te model is used to
negotiate the coordination of these trades. Primary structure, secondary
structure, wall, curtain wall, waterproong, claddingeach of these elements
has tolerances and internal constraints. Elements set rst must meet certain
constraints for downstream elements that are already in fabrication. Ele-
ments downstream can anticipate which upstream components will be out
of tolerance, or otherwise changed due to eld conditions. All of this is to say
that nominal controlling geometry is obsolete at some point and gives way to
as-built conditions. To borrow Stuart Kaumans theory of complex adaptive
systems described in Origins of Order (1993), a complex relationship exists
between two systems which is sensitive to the degree of interdependence: too
many connections and there is stasis, too few and there is chaos. Te trick
in managing these systems is to nd the essential gures and controls for
each layer in the assembly and then to link them with the next layers salient
information. In many ways, the building surveyor, spotting coordinates into
and out from a master digital model, is the glue for this exercise.
1.
For further discussions of
design systems, design intent
and parametric modeling see
Techniques and Technologies
in Morphogenetic Design,
AD Vol 76, No 2 (March/April
2006)
5 San Francisco
Federal Building
Interior view
90 MARTY DOSCHER
All this is not about ratcheting up control to master the construction process
so as to achieve an a priori notion of the design. Morphosis seeks a collab-
orative relationship with builders. We strive to nurture an understanding of
the design ambitions of the project, and to allay fears of complex forms and
assemblies that lead to overestimation of risk and hence higher cost. We also
understand the importance of being immediately available as problem-solvers
in the eld.
What does digitally-integrated design-build do to design? It improves
the connection between what is desired and what is realized. For the design-
er, digitally-integrated design-build helps to shape what the designer desires.
Sometimes this has a positive eect, especially when the designer starts to
communicate the desire in terms of known methods of making. But at other
times this simulation of desires can have a negative eect, especially when it
discourages the suspension of disbelief (that something cannot be made with
known methods) at the conceptual stage of design.
6 San Francisco
Federal Building
Construction phase
91 DIGITALLY-INTEGRATED DESIGN/BUILD
7 On site
Designer with surveyor
8 Printed 3D model
Design review
9 Panel installation
92 MARTY DOSCHER
10 Off-site testing
Panel mock-up
11 San Francisco Federal Building
Lobby design model
93 DIGITALLY-INTEGRATED DESIGN/BUILD
12 San Fransisco
Federal Building
detail/shop model
13 Digitally integrated
design-build strategy
detail/shop model
14 Digitally integrated
design-build strategy
detail/shop model
95
Te number of mainstream CNC technologies in use today is both exciting
and a cause for reection. Recently, during a lazy afternoon while watching
television, I saw the boys of American Chopper use both a CNC mill and
outsource a small water-jet project. Te program itself was not surprising,
as I had seen it before, but one of the commercials during the segment was
for a Sears Craftsman mini CNC cutter. We are seeing the ways in which
this technology is shaping not only high-end, large volume manufacturing but
working its way into garages of one-o hobby fabricators as evidenced by the
Sears market niche. Obviously dierent industries implement and use these
technologies to dierent ends, mostly for precision and economy as opposed
to design disciplines that see the technology potentially augmenting their
practices and consequently changing the forms they produce.
As an educator it feels like my role has changed considerably in the last
few years. I no longer need to teach people about what these technologies
do or what they are capable of. Instead, I must teach about best practices
and about how and why these technologies might be used. It is not a ques-
tion of whether or not we will use them (as we are already using them), it is a
question of how best to integrate them into our work and of the potential to
change what we already do.
Looking beyond the building industry very often helps us understand
new approaches to our work. A favorite analogous industry is that of textile
and fashion manufacture and design. A key reason for this fascination is that
clothing is volumetric in its relationship to the body but it has historically
been produced from at stock. Two people who are continuing sources for
both reference and inspiration are Anni Albers and Issey Miyake. Each artist
oers a dierent lesson from a very dierent era, both of which are incredibly
relevant to our current relationships to technology.
Karl Daubmann
Ply Architecture
University of Michigan
Tailors after Taylorism
FUTUREWOOD
1 Prototype screen
Detail view
96
3 Great Lakes Cycling Spiral:
Panel fabrication
Skinning the curved frame for
the Spiral
KARL DAUBMANN
2 Great Lakes Cycling Spiral
View of phases one and two
In Anni Albers book On Designing, she proposes that we not simply
use or understand materials or technologies but that we collaborate with
them. She tells us to approach materials unaggressively and receptively
1

For Ply, adopting this receptive approach has meant that we test, prototype
and research tools and techniques in an attempt, not only to uncover what
is possible, but to discover what makes sense, given the logics and contexts
of a specic project or collaboration at hand. Due to our close proximity to
the automotive industry, we have made many connections to local fabricators
involved marginally in the automotive ecosystem. Tese small shops are not
only about high-volume production but about realizing the importance of
exible forms of manufacturing, giving us an in to small one-o projects.
Issey Miyake has not only listened to the lessons of technology avail-
able in the fashion industry but has also extended the parameters of fashion
and reengineered its tools, challenging the very denition of the industry.
Redening relationships between cloth and clothing with ideas about mass-
customization, he is developing lines of clothes that are not cut from patterns
but are instead woven into their forms from the start. Additionally, the cloth
can be cut anywhere and will not unravel, meaning that a customer can
change the size simply, with a pair of scissors. Te product/process is called
APOC (a piece of cloth). APOC not only changes the production process,
but introduces new practices and forms. Te goal is not to be more extreme in
terms of haute couture but to bring ideas of mass customization to consumers
at all price points.
Learning directly from fabricators, tools and other industries,
Ply Architecture has been working on many small, quick and aordable
projects that attempt to utilize these technologies and ideas. Given the wide-
spread dispersion of CNC technology, there is no reason that the tools
should be used exclusively for the construction of large and expensive buildings.
Very often, initial tests at the scale of furniture produce work with broader
implications and larger questions.
A lineage of recently completed small Ply projects demonstrates the
progression of research interests and fabrication strategies that link wood
construction with parametric thinking. Te simple rule that all ve projects
follow is that 3D form emerges from 2D parts. Given the small budgets and
quick timeframes, milling large chunks of material is avoided as it is expen-
sive, time consuming and wasteful. Rather than glue together blocks of
material to then produce expressive form, clothing is taken as inspiration
where at material yields complex form.
The Great Lakes Cycling Spiral
Te Great Lakes Cycling Spiral was designed to operate as a store within
a larger store, leading to a spatially ambiguous conguration. Using a plywood
surface as a means to elicit ideas about half pipes and track racing, the surface
also acts as a stressed skin panel, providing space and structure in one. Top
and bottom rails were laid out to be skinned with 1/8 plywood. Four large
sections were built in a shop and then installed in three days.
4 Great Lakes Cycling Spiral
Stacked table parts for shipping
1.
Anni Albers, On Designing,
Wesleyan University (1971)
97 TAILORS AFTER TAYLORISM
5 Great Lakes Cycling Spiral
Completed phase one of spiral
7 Great Lakes Cycling Spiral
Cut layout with nested shapes
8 Great Lakes Cycling Spiral
Table elevation with varying radii
6 Great Lakes Cycling Spiral
Completed table and exhibit
98 KARL DAUBMANN
9 BTB2 ceiling
Exploded axonometric view of
design for the interior
An exhibit table was designed to build on the ideas of the Spiral
using similar details. In this case parametric software was used to study the
relationships of the assembled and disassembled/packed components for
shipping. Te 40 table is designed to pack with a series of nested curved
leg sections. Each leg is similar but dierent in its radius. In addition to the
benet for packing, a sheet sectioned in this way becomes super-e cient in
that the edge rails can be cut with only the width of a cutting bit between
them. Having learned from previously outsourced projects, Ply has developed
a process wherein the toolpath does not make redundant passes. Tis is not
only material e cient, but machine and time e cient as well, ultimately
reducing the cost for the client.
The BTB2 ceiling
Te ceiling has become another interest as an often overlooking surface
that determines much of what we see and experience within a space. It also
determines, structures, and organizes much of the infrastructure above us.
A series of restaurant interiors for a chain called BTB Burritos have been
designed and built with a focus on the ceiling. In BTB2 the ceiling is fabric-
ated from at aluminum strips that are parametrically sized based on the
inversion of the perspective on the deep and narrow space. Trough
extremely subtle variations in the length, the spacing is dierentiated. In
addition to using the material-e cient strategy for fabrication, the at
components were designed to be packed and shipped at, then expanded on
site. Ceiling components were sheared to determine height, and then custom
cut to precisely control the length (and resulting distortion).
99 TAILORS AFTER TAYLORISM
10 BTB2 ceiling
Unpacking diagram for ceiling
components
11 BTB2 ceiling
View of completed project
looking toward street
100 KARL DAUBMANN
13 Screen Wall
Elevation of differentiated
components
12 Screen Wall
Single adaptive component
Choice Dental
Choice Dental Centre shares an a nity for the ceiling because the focus is
upward while a patient reclines in a dentists chair. Tis project builds on the
existing research of BTB2 and uses the parametric relations to alter a simple
V-shaped ceiling component across the entire eld. In this project, each part
is produced to look somewhat dierent as a means to making each dental
room unique but related. Working through studies and mock-ups, it was
soon realized that if the V-shapes were kept orthogonal to one another, zero
waste cutting would result, similarly to the cut les for the truss table. Te
result is a complex, dierentiated, material-e cient and rigid form.
Screen Wall
Te last project in the lineage is a prototype screen wall currently under
development. Te screen wall revisits the material used in BTB Burritos
ceiling (thin gauge aluminum strips), but amplies the parametric relation-
ships developed for the Choice Dental Centre ceiling. A series of stackable
parts are assembled from 2D-cut, at, aluminum sheets that are then sewn
to complementary 2D-cut at aluminum strips. Te resulting part varies in
size and proportion depending on its location in the wall. Again, each part is
dierent but related. In this project the dierences are highlighted because of
the bi-directional deformations.
Tese short glimpses into a series of related projects aim to illustrate the
potential of material, form, assembly and play. Each project learns from direct
contact with material and through numerous full-scale studies. New poten-
tials emerge not only through associations between parts but also through
embedding material and fabrication knowledge into the design le. Once this
fabrication/material knowledge is captured, the design can be manipulated
so that each test follows the rules dened by the collaboration between
designer and material.
101
14 Choice Dental Centre
View from dentists chair look-
ing up to ceiling
16 Choice Dental Centre
Diagram of component rela-
tionship, attening, geometric
projection, and cutting layout
15 Choice Dental Centre
View of ceiling as connective
spatial element
TAILORS AFTER TAYLORISM
103
Before the twentieth century, construction was seen as an act of continu-
ity. After the Second World War, there was an understandable emphasis
on building quickly, however too many projects were built without enough
care and attention. In Britain, many post-war housing schemes were already
demolished before the end of the last century. It is now possible to combine
robust, rapidly deployable, contemporary technology with the immutable
qualities of architecture, combining fast construction with slow architecture.
Tis is an architecture of ne ingredients designed to be purposeful, durable,
savoured and enjoyed.
Te relationship between craft and industrialization is changing. Re-
peatable craft techniques can now be used to provide a rich level of quality
within an architecture that is also aordable. Te new fabrication equipment
and tooling are, in fact, an explosion of the notion of the crafts as we under-
stood them in the past, observes Carles Vallhonrat (1988).
1
Te dichotomy
between handcraft and manufacturing industries, presented by William
Morris and John Ruskin in the nineteenth century, no longer exists. Tere
is in essence a convergence whereby crafts people can become an industry of
one, (Campbell, 2006) and the architect, formerly a remote fabricator, can
now directly control the manufacturing process.
2
Digital design and manu-
facturing can transform the working relationships in the making of architec-
ture, placing the architect at the centre of this creative process as proposed by
Kieran Timberlake (2003) in Refabricating Architecture.
3
My own practice
has demonstrated this development in the rebuilding of Ballingdon Bridge.
Te setting of Ballingdon Bridge, as it crosses the River Stour, is a
wonderful combination of a water meadow that surrounds Sudbury, Suolk,
and the listed buildings that form the village of Ballingdon. Tere have been
bridges on this site since the twelfth century. Te previous bridge, built in
Michael Stacey
Michael Stacey Architects
University of Nottingham
Fast Construction: Slow Architecture
3.
Stephen Keiran and James
Timberlake, Refabricating
Architecture, McGraw Hill
(2003)
1.
Carles Vallhonrat Tectonics
Considered: Between the
Presence and the Absence
of Artice, Perspecta 24, Yale
(1988)
2.
Emily Campbell, Personal
Touch, Crafts Magazine, Issue
no. 200 (May/June 2006)
FUTUREWOOD
1 Ballingdon Bridge
Detail view from Sudbury bank
104 MICHAEL STACEY
2 Village of Ballingdon
View from Ballingdon Bridge
looking back towards the
village from the Sudbury bank
3 Examination of geometry
Wire frame model illustrates
asymmetrical and site-specic
geometry
4 Process diagrams
Digital fabrication and digital
delivery can place the archi-
tect at the centre of the con-
struction process. Compare
diagrams: the isolated conven-
tions of recent construction
and the potential of digital fab-
rications, prepared by Stephen
Kieran and James Timberlake.
The integrated design team of
Ballingdon Bridge fully utilised
the second diagram, however
the product engineering
was also undertaken by
the architect.
105
1911, was not capable of sustaining 42 tonne articulated trucks and closure
would have resulted in a 35 mile diversion from the A131 trunk road. Te
new Ballingdon Bridge designed by Brookes Stacey Randall and Arup is
an integral reinforced concrete structure. It is the rst trunk road bridge in
Britain that is built by an architect-led design team.
Te design of the new bridge is visually calm and respectful of the
historic context; however, the structure has a dynamically three-dimensional
so t. Designed using an evolutionary technique, the overall form of the
bridge is asymmetrical and site specic with a so t geometry that is ever
changing, morphing from section to section.. Te primary structure of the
bridge is formed from precast concrete; the mix has been selected to match
the local limestone of the twelfth century Norman Church. Te precast units
were manufactured by Buchan in timber models, which were beautifully
crafted from Brookes Stacey Randalls digital geometry. Te moulds were
in essence hand-crafted using Jelutong (Dyera costulata) and checked with
laser cut templates. Although only a precursor of the nal architecture, these
moulds were very beautiful forms. Buchan used a total of 17 pattern makers
and carpenters to fabricate the moulds, working to an accuracy of 2mm.
Te design for Ballingdon Bridge has a gently curvilinear prole and
a dynamically morphed so t. Within this ever-changing geometry, no two
adjacent sections are the same. It was designed using an iterative lofting
technique. Te geometry morphs from slice to slice and, at the feet of the
piers, the architects prepared sections at 47mm centres, each under every 2
inches. An interesting comparison is the in situ formwork constructed for
Eero Saarinens TWA Terminal at JFK Airport, New York, where the con-
struction company, Grove Shepherd Wilson & Krudge built the formwork
based on sections at 1foot (305mm) intervals. Antonio Romn notes in Eero
Saarinen, Architecture of Multiplicity that By 1960, about midway through
construction, the intricacies of the site work required the builders to turn
in part to computer generated computations.
4
Tus, the TWA Terminal
is both visually and technically a precursor of digitally-based architecture,
however, the key to Saarinens design process was the use of physical models.
FAST CONSTRUCTION - SLOW ARCHITECTURE
4.
Antonio Romn, Eero
Saarinen, Architecture of
Multiplicity, Laurence King
(2004)
5 Ballingdon Bridge
View from the water meadows
of Sudbury
6 Construction process
Precast moulds under
construction at Buchans
works in the West Midlands
7 Mould of pier foot unit
The timber mould will form the
interface between precast and
in situ concrete
8 Timber moulds
Manufactured at Buchan,
Accrington
106 MICHAEL STACEY
Te morphing of the bridge superstructure developed out of appar-
ently conicting criteria required for the bridge and its setting. Te desire to
create a ne edge, yet provide the robustness of a road bridge, combined with
the need to maintain the wetted area in the course of the river. In a ood,
the bridge acts as a dam or choke causing the water meadow to ood whilst
protecting the houses downstream. Considerable design endeavour and dis-
cussion went into deciding when to introduce a point of contraection, when
to have smooth transitions or when to generate a denite line on elevation?
Visualising those subtle dierences and modifying the end product as a result
was the essence of this design development process. Tis is an approach to
architecture that is akin to product design where every inection in the form
is critical. Smooth transitions in space have been achieved by a dedicated
iteration, a design process targeted to extending the possible outcomes, not a
simple explosion or implosion of space and form. Tis design process created
geometry closer to the evolutionary geometry characteristic of nature, yet it
was delivered within a realistic human time scale.
Te design les were a common digital resource for the entire design
team. Without this digital geometry, which was generated by the architects,
it would have been very di cult to realise this bridge. By the completion of
the design of Ballingdon Bridge, my practice had built three separate three-
dimensional computer models: the rst helped win the competition and the
second represented the developed design but had no symmetry and therefore
no repeat castings. Tis geometrical model was directly based on Arups nite
element analysis. Te third model is a geometric description of the bridge
that now spans the River Stour.
Te nal form of the superstructure was tested by rapid prototyp-
ing at the Integrated Center for Design, Visualisation and Manufacture,
University of Waterloo, Ontario. Te rapid prototypes have been produced
directly from Brookes Stacey Randalls three-dimensional digital les. Te
key outcome from this process to date has been the rigorous checking of
two-dimensional and three-dimensional data, seeking physical feedback on
the design decisions. Te potential role of rapid prototyping to aid form-
9 Night view
Ballingdon Bridge is the rst
bridge to be illuminated at
night in Suffolk
10 Night view
The scoops of the bridge are
illuminated at night
11 Sectional digital model
Reveals the use of an iterative
lofting technique
107
nding in architecture has been explored further by Jonathan Friedman, who
has fabricated a 1:33 CNC machined model of Ballingdon Bridge. Jonathan
used a at bed 3-axis CNC router to produce a full, three-dimensional repre-
sentation of the concrete structure.
5
Te balustrade has been designed to be visually open so that the views
of the landscape are as uninterrupted as possible. It is capable of arresting
a 42 tonne truck yet appears to be an elegant pedestrian handrail. Te top
rail is a combination of extruded aluminium and English oak. Tis point of
human contact is key to the design; the vehicular safety role of the balus-
trade is intended to be an unseen quality to the pedestrian. Te enlarged
oak walkways create a generous provision for pedestrians to enjoy the views
of the river and meadows. People enjoying the river and the urban spaces of
the Ballingdon and Sudbury are the priority within the design of this road
bridge.
Trough careful study of the construction and phasing of the bridge and
the use of extensive prefabrication, disruption to Sudbury and Ballingdon
was minimised and two-way tra c on the Bridge was maximised during
reconstruction. Ballingdon Bridge is an example of fast construction slow
architecture. Te bridge was rebuilt in 18 months and has a design life of
120 years. Brookes Stacey Randall sought to uphold the rich architectural
traditions and construction quality of Suolk. Sudbury was the home of
Gainsborough and the landscape of the River Stour is set in Constable
country. Te quality of design and the quality of thought that this project
demonstrates represents one of the key components for the creation of a
built environment that will sustain human ecology. Architects should also
be condent of their own subjective value judgements; digital design and
delivery oers a route to serve society well, with purpose and delight.
FAST CONSTRUCTION - SLOW ARCHITECTURE
5.
Robert Aitcheson, Jonathan
Friedman and Thomas
Seebohm, 3-Axis CNC Milling
in Architectural Design,
International Journal Of
Architectural Computing,
Issue 02, volume 03 161
(2005)
12 Machined model
1:33 CNC machined model of
Ballingdon Bridge fabricated
by Jonathan Friedman using a
3-axis CNC router
13 Secure balustrade
The visually open balustrade
can stop a 42 tonne
articulated truck from falling
into the river Stour
14 Oak walkways
Made from English oak, the
walkways are widest at the
centre of the bridge
15 Construction process
Precast concrete unit
suspended over the river Stour
109
Stock Space was part of an invited exhibition of four concept spaces at
the 2005 Toronto Interior Design Show. Modest in budget and ephemeral
in nature, Stock Space was installed, exhibited and dismantled over a ve
day period at the Toronto National Trade Center. Occupying 450 sq ft
within a 110,000 sq ft convention center, Stock Space was small, vertical,
warm and quiet, in contrast to the immense horizontality of the mechan-
ically cooled trade oor and the pervasive ambient sound of nearly 40,000
exhibitors and attendees.
Stock Space was an investigation of limits. Material had to be stored
compactly, carried by hand; it also clear doors and staircases and t beneath
the gantry of a CNC router table.
Stock Space was an exercise in subtraction. Te space was conceived of
as a solid void and was created through the removal of stock material from
a volume that measured 24 long x 18 wide x 12 tall. Medium density EPS
foam in 4x 8 x 16 modules provided a light and machinable medium
capable of recording the vestigial marks of fabrication and of providing
adequate dampening and insulation. Te resulting assemblage of stacked
modules embodied traits of the orthographic grid associated with the length
and width of the stock and the topographic contours associated with the
depth of the stock and the isoparametric grooves of the resulting surface.
Te model for Stock Space was derived parametrically respective of
curvature and collision analysis. Te digital malleability of the underlying
surfaces was restricted to the maximum machinable curvature relative
to the modularity of the stock material. As such, the subjective and iterative
nature of the design process was carefully mitigated by the objective limits of
the fabrication processes at-hand.
Shane Williamson
WilliamsonWilliamson
University of Toronto
Stock Space
FUTUREWOOD
1 Stock Space
Entrance view
110 SHANE WILLIAMSON
2 Study model
View from below
3 Study model
View from above
4 Cut diagram
111 STOCK SPACE
5 Diagrammatic model
Showing assembly
6 Hybrid diagram
Showing curvature analysis,
isoparametric curves, modules
and contours
7 3-axis milling
Showing the vestigial marks of
machining
112 SHANE WILLIAMSON
8 Module detail
9 Interior view
Showing offset contour seams
between modules
10 Stacked modules
Modules prior to assembly
113 STOCK SPACE
11 Interior elevation
Showing relationship between modules and machining passes
12 Interior view
Showing curvature continuity between modules
115
Te key question for the architecture of the information age is not focused
on construction technique or building material, but on the way of digital
information is processed between design and realization. During the last
years, a trend towards complex form has become evident. With its intuitive
user interfaces, todays 3D-software makes the design of free forms easy and
attractive. Te planning of complex projects usually starts innocentlyin
3D modelling software, deforming operations like bending or twisting are
generated with a few clicks. By contrast, the realization of the design may
consist of thousands of dierent pieces, depending on the size of the object.
In traditional planning, this results in thousands of dierent realization plans
with dimensioning, details and tolerances for the architect and in machine
programming with thousands of implementation plans for the workshop.
Wouldnt it be nice to print buildings digitally, on machines just as we send
a le to our printer? Te crucial challenge for todays planners and builders
seems to be the establishment of continuous digital processes between
design and production.
Since the beginning of industrialization, timber construction has been
the standard material for prefabricated housing. Because of this background,
between the 19th and 20th century the technical development of timber
production chains and machines was more advanced than any other building
industry. Today, timber manufacturing infrastructure has changed signi-
cantly from inexible mass production tools to an excellent level of exible
CNC-machines. Workshops are relying largely on digital processes to control
their computer-aided tools, but are using this potential mostly for custom-
izing industrial processes in prefabricated housing. Designtoproduction is a
Swiss consultancy for the digital production of complex architectural design
with a belief that todays timber infrastructure is the most promising starting
1 Case Study 1
The winning proposal of the
Camera Obscura as drawn in
Cadwork to be exported to the
Hundegger automated joinery
machines
Christoph Schindler
designtoproduction
Building Continuous Digital Planning
Processes on Timber Infrastructure
FUTUREWOOD
Two Case Studies on Digital Wood Fabrication
116 CHRISTOPH SCHINDLER
point both for building continuous digital planning processes between design
and production, and for realizing complex form in an elegant way. During the
last two years, designtoproduction has realized several case studies using vari-
ous logistic strategies and dierent digital wood processing machines. Two
recent case studies illustrate their approach.
Case Study 1: Camera Obscura
Te Camera Obscura project was realized as a student workshop in collabo-
ration with Professor Knut Einar Larsen at the Norwegian University of
Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. Te course explored
the potential to build complex shapes with computer-controlled joinery
machines, namely the popular Hundegger SpeedCut SC1 and K2+.
Tese machines were chosen because they are the backbone of the equip-
ment found in a modern timber workshop but are hardly known to designers.
Designtoproduction sought to nd out whether the machines ve-axis
liberty of action would open design possibilities beyond their normal use in
dovetail detailing. Te students task was to exploit the tools capabilities for
the development of an accessible camera obscura in the harbour of Trond-
heim and thus to explore a reverse design process from production to design.
2 Case Study 1
On the construction site,
the prefabricated elements
were assembled in a manual
process
3 Case Study 1
Digital fabrication of the ele-
ments
120
117
5 Case Study 1
Inauguration of the Camera
Obscura in the harbor of
Trondheim in December 2006
DIGITAL PLANNING PROCESSES ON TIMBER INFRASTRUCTURE
Te course started with a three-day workshop on the premises of a
prefabrication rm, allowing students to learn about the machines char-
acteristics by drawing with the timber software Cadwork and manufacturing
small samples on the Hundegger joinery machine. Despite expectations that
these experiences would be essential to the design proposals, the participants
chose a traditional analog architects environment involving sketching and
extensive building of physical models. Gradually, the results were transferred
into a digital environment (ArchiCAD, SketchUp). Te students developed
the nal building project as a twisted cube with a side length of four meters,
enclosing the buildings volume with four hyperbolic paraboloids. Although
at the workshops conception the intention was to develop the design from
the characteristics of a specic machine, the project turned out to be the
result of a classic design process gradually developing into detailing. Again,
the most demanding and time consuming step in the planning process was
adapting the chosen design to the capabilities of the automated joinery
machine. Te greatest challenges were the geometries of the toothed top
and bottom frames. During this phase, the machines ve-axis movements
proved to be limited to certain predened detailing. Nevertheless, the initially
acquired knowledge and the close cooperation with the timber workshops
helped to take the machines production capacities far beyond their normal use.
To summarize, the digital planning process in this project was a com-
bination of Cadwork timber software and Hundegger automated joinery
machines. Te innovative step was very simple: standard timber hard- and
software was placed in the hands of designers. Tough participants widely
relied on conventional methods during the design phase, the nal result
would not have been possible without the previous learning experiences.
4 Case Study 1
Base detail with the clearly
visible toothed frame
118 CHRISTOPH SCHINDLER
6 Case Study 2
Inventioneering Architecture
platform in October 2005 in
San Francisco
Case Study 2: Inventioneering Architecture
Inventioneering Architecture is a travelling exhibition for the four Swiss
schools of architecture that was shown in various cities around the world.
Te doubly curved platform resembles an abstract crosscut through the
Swiss topography. It measures 40 x 3 meters with varying heights up to 1.5
meters. A footpath meanders along the surface, crossing the exhibits. Te
platforms designers Instant Architects invited designtoproduction to develop
a construction for this surface that would meet the budget requirements and
be easily de-mountable and transportable.
Te platform is divided into 1000 individually curved cross sections,
each describing the upper surface path of one rafter. For this project
designtoproduction developed the principle of the twisted cut utilizing the
capabilities of a ve-axis router. Te milling tool follows this path and rotates
around it at the same time, cutting out a so-called ruled surface that follows
the topography of the platform both along and across the section. Tus, it is
possible to manufacture a three-dimensional, non-unfoldable, doubly curved
surface from two-dimensional sheet material at very low cost. Such a shape is
hardly possible to manufacture by hand. Te rafters are connected by dowels
and supported by perpendicular boards.
In order to get a grip on the platform, the crucial point was to automate
the translation of its geometry into the geometry of the single parts and
nally into the steering code for the computer-controlled mill. Tis was
accomplished by a set of scripts in the CAD-package Vectorworks. Te rst
script imports the original design dened as a NURBS-surface into the
modelling software Maya, reads the coordinates of the platforms cross
sections for every rafter and determines the angles of bank. A second script
translates this information into the milling paths for all 1000 rafters and also
includes all drillings for the dowels. A third script arranges and optimizes the
rafters on the MDF-boards and generates the so-called G-Code, the programs
which control the ve-axis CNC-router. 120 MDF boards sized at 1.0 x 4.2
meters were used to fabricate all rafters within roughly 50 milling hours.
Overall, this project illustrates an uninterrupted chain from an undetailed
surface design to detailing automation, automated nesting and generation of
machine code. It turned out that 74% of the production cost could be saved
by automating these steps. Te twisted cut was established as a principle and
has been applied already to two further projects.
7 Case Study 2
The principle of the twisted
cut: A doublecurved, non-un-
foldable surface is fabricated
by rotating the bit around its
path
119 DIGITAL PLANNING PROCESSES ON TIMBER INFRASTRUCTURE
Platte0
h 3123
rechts
Platte1
h 2339
rechts
Platte2
h 3538
rechts
Platte3
h 3525
rechts
Platte4
h 3147
rechts
Platte5
h 3353
rechts
Platte6
h 3604
rechts
Platte7
h 3603
rechts
Platte8
h 3554
rechts
Platte9
h 3253
rechts
Platte10
h 2839
rechts
Platte11
h 2645
rechts
Platte12
h 2546
rechts
Platte13
h 2444
rechts
Platte14
h 2329
rechts
Platte15
h 3566
rechts
Platte16
h 3561
rechts
Platte17
h 3359
rechts
Platte18
h 3135
rechts
Platte19
h 3086
rechts
Platte20
h 3430
rechts
Platte21
h 3361
rechts
Platte22
h 3260
rechts
Platte23
h 3168
rechts
Platte24
h 3127
rechts
Platte25
h 3249
rechts
Platte26
h 3554
rechts
Platte27
h 3553
rechts
Platte28
h 3550
rechts
Platte29
h 3546
rechts
Platte30
h 3542
rechts
Platte31
h 3519
rechts
Platte32
h 3449
rechts
Platte33
h 3407
rechts
Platte34
h 2635
rechts
Platte35
h 2343
rechts
Platte36
h 2336
rechts
Platte37
h 2330
rechts
Platte38
h 3392
links
Platte39
h 3402
links
Platte40
h 2131
links
Platte41
h 2033
links
Platte42
h 1934
links
Platte43
h 1857
links
Platte44
h 2450
links
Platte45
h 3083
links
Platte46
h 3459
links
Platte47
h 3496
links
Platte48
h 3516
links
Platte49
h 3525
links
Platte50
h 3534
links
Platte51
h 3538
links
Platte52
h 3164
links
Platte53
h 3404
links
Platte54
h 3501
links
Platte55
h 3577
links
Platte56
h 3602
links
Platte57
h 3604
links
Platte58
h 3604
links
Platte59
h 3409
links
Platte60
h 3494
links
Platte61
h 3527
links
Platte62
h 3534
links
Platte63
h 3542
links
Platte64
h 3550
links
Platte65
h 3558
links
Platte66
h 3565
links
Platte67
h 3258
links
Platte68
h 3455
links
Platte69
h 3547
links
Platte70
h 3553
links
Platte71
h 2327
links
Platte72
h 2326
links
Platte73
h 2326
links
Platte74
h 2326
links
Platte75
h 2326
links
Platte76
h 932
links
Platte77
h 929
links
Platte78
h 3402
rechts
Platte79
h 3398
rechts
Platte80
h 1892
rechts
Platte81
h 2555
rechts
Platte82
h 2551
rechts
Platte83
h 1719
rechts
Platte84
h 1002
rechts
Platte85
h 1433
rechts
Platte86
h 2262
rechts
Platte87
h 2515
rechts
Platte88
h 2683
rechts
Platte89
h 2856
rechts
Platte90
h 3077
rechts
Platte91
h 3284
rechts
Platte92
h 3385
rechts
Platte93
h 1319
rechts
Platte94
h 1889
rechts
Platte95
h 2101
rechts
Platte96
h 2195
rechts
Platte97
h 2223
rechts
Platte98
h 1838
rechts
Platte99
h 1995
rechts
Platte100
h 2072
rechts
Platte101
h 2176
rechts
Platte102
h 2203
rechts
Platte103
h 1354
rechts
Platte104
h 2102
rechts
Platte105
h 2797
rechts
Platte106
h 3314
rechts
Platte107
h 3395
rechts
Platte108
h 2004
rechts
Platte109
h 1990
rechts
Platte110
h 1107
rechts
Platte111
h 934
rechts
Platte112
h 931
rechts
Platte113
h 929
rechts
Platte114
h 1903
links
Platte115
h 3393
links
Platte116
h 3393
links
Platte117
h 3394
links
Platte118
h 3394
links
Platte119
h 3395
links
Platte120
h 3159
links
Platte121
h 2411
links
Platte122
h 1715
links
Platte123
h 1524
links
Platte124
h 1414
links
Platte125
h 2462
links
Platte126
h 2113
links
Platte127
h 1709
links
Platte128
h 1006
links
Platte129
h 3385
links
Platte130
h 3345
links
Platte131
h 1751
links
Platte132
h 1300
links
Platte133
h 1194
links
Platte134
h 1116
links
Platte135
h 2219
links
Platte136
h 2206
links
Platte137
h 2146
links
Platte138
h 1169
links
Platte139
h 1989
links
Platte140
h 1988
links
Platte141
h 1987
links
Platte142
h 1987
links
Platte143
h 1987
links
Platte144
h 1987
links
Platte145
h 1987
links
Platte146
h 1987
links
Platte147
h 930
links
Platte148
h 929
links
Platte149
h 929
links
Platte150
h 930
links
Platte151
h 929
links
8 Case Study 2
Automatically detailed and
nested on boards: Vectorscript
organized the platform 1000
different rafters
9 Case Study 2
A ve-axis router performing
the twisted cut
121
Author Biographies
OMER ARBEL
Omer Arbel Ofce Inc.
Omer Arbel graduated from the University of Waterloo School of Architecture in the summer
of 2000. After tenures with Enric Miralles, John and Patricia Patkau, and Peter Busby, which
included notable works such as the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh and the new Inform
store in Vancouver, Omer opened the OAO in January of 2006. OAO (Omer Arbel Ofce) is
a Vancouver-based practice operating within the elds of industrial design, architecture
and material research.
Arbels debut piece, the 1.1 shelf, was a nalist for a 2003 D&AD Yellow Pencil award
(known as the Oscars of industrial design) and lost in the nal round of judging to the G4
imac by Apple Computers. The 2.4 cast resin lounge chair won a Chicago Athenaeums 2003
Good Design Award, a 2004 ID Magazine Design Review Honorable Mention, and a nalist
citation for a 2004 Yellow Pencil. Now in the permanent collection of the Chicago Athenaeum
Museum of Architecture and Design, the piece has been exhibited all over the world, most
notably at the Totem Gallery (New York), the Chicago Athenaeum Museum, the Vancouver Art
Gallery, the Design Exchange (Toronto) and the D&AD forum (London). Arbel was selected by
Wallpaper magazine as one of 15 up and coming designers of our generation. More recently,
he has been recognized for the design of the 14 Series cast glass pendants for two differ-
ent clients the progressive Italian lighting manufacturer Kundalini in Europe and the small
start up manufacturing house Bocci in North America (for whom Arbel is acting as Creative
Director). This design has been shortlisted for an iF product design award and for the Best
Newcomer Blueprint award.
www.omerarbel.com
PHILIP BEESLEY
Associate Professor, University of Waterloo
Philip Beesley is an experimental architect and sculptor who focuses on public buildings
and visual art. His creative work has been recognized by the Prix de Rome for Architecture
(Canada), a Governor-Generals award, a number of Ontario Architects Association Awards of
Excellence, and two Dora Mavor Moore Awards. His built works include a series of schools,
theatres and community facilities. He has been a member of several art and performance
collaboratives and often works in stage and gallery installations. In parallel with his practice,
he is an Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture as well as
the Fabrication theme leader for the Canada Design Research Network and co-director of
the Waterloo Integrated Centre for Visualization, Design and Manufacturing (ICVDM), a high
performance computing centre. The Niagara Credit Union has been recognized with the
Ontario Association of Architects Architectural Excellence Award, the Canadian Wood Council
Woodworks award, and the Niagara-On-The-Lake Heritage Conservation Award, 2004.
www.philipbeesley.com
HAGY BELZBERG
Belzberg Architects
For a decade, Belzberg Architects has functioned as a group of young designers guided by
the experience and curiosity of Hagy Belzberg. Each individual from the rm was drafted by
his/her peers for specic skills, which merge in various ways. The aim is not only to conceive
of designs, but to manifest them as well. The will of the rm is to test the effects of our
working methodologies within physical environments.
The rm aspires to create and exploit designs which are cohesive in spatial experience from
form and texture through more traditional models of color and light. The results are often
physical realizations of digital practice enriched by the tangible qualities of material/product
and embodied in a continuous, whole architectural experience.
www.belzbergarchitects.com
CHRISTIAN BLYT
President, GreenHus Design Ltd.
Associate Professor of Industrial Design, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design
Christian Blyt is an Associate Professor in Industrial Design and Coordinator of the Innova-
tions in Wood Design program. He received his MA in Interior Architecture and Furniture
Design from the University of Arts and Design in Helsinki, Finland and a technical diploma in
Wood Product Manufacturing from BCIT. His work encompasses a wide range of international
experiences in different segments of the wood design and manufacturing industry. He is also a
partner in the design and manufacturing rm, Greenhus Designs Ltd. that will be commercial-
izing his patented master thesis Corelam (an all-wood corrugated plywood product) and a
founding member of the Bark Design Collective.
FUTUREWOOD
122
KARL DAUBMAN
Principal, Ply Architecture
Asst. Prof. of Practice, Taubman College of Architecture
Daubmann is a principal of PLY Architecture and Asstant Professor of Practice at the
University of Michigan where he teaches studios and seminars related to materials,
building technology, construction, and digital fabrication. His work in both practice and
research investigates the role of digital technology in design, originally through simulation
of real world phenomena and, more recently, through fabrication. Daubmann received his
BArch from Roger Williams University in 1995 and his Masters from MIT in 1999.
www.plyarch.com
MARTY DOSCHER
IT Director, morphosis
As the IT Director at morphosis, Marty Doscher is responsible for overseeing CAD produc-
tion for the company and its consultants. For ve years at mOrphosis, and 6 years prior,
he has successfully managed the integration of diverse and complex project teams CAD
drawings and models. His primary focus is the integration of virtual building models into
design and construction processes. Whereas models have always been fundamental to the
design process, they are now also tightly integrated into construction documents. With
projects such as the Wayne Morse US Courthouse, San Franciscos Federal Building, the
University of Cincinnati Recreation Center and the new academic building for The Cooper
Union for Advancement of Science and Art in New York, Doscher is leading the effort to
integrate architectural and structural 3D models with the contractors shop drawings. This
integration is leading to a more collaborative and streamlined shop drawing creation and
review process, resulting in signicantly fewer changes in the eld.
Doscher holds a Bachelor of Science with major in Architecture from Georgia Institute of
Technology and a Master of Architecture from SCI-Arc. He has lectured and taught on
various modeling topics at ACADIA, AIA, and Zweig White, USC and UCLA among other
venues and universities. He has also tutored several parametric design workshops
with Generative Components.
www.morphosis.net
THOM FAULDERS
Beige Design
Thom Faulders founded Beige Design in 1998. The design studio places equal emphasis
on speculative research and applied practice. With its active interdisciplinary presence,
Beige projects range in scale from architecture and urban interventions to the design of
environments and product prototypes. The studio pursues architecture as a real-time and
responsive medium, and explores dynamic systems to investigate contemporary space in an
age of customization.
Faulders has received numerous honors, including awards from the Bienal Miami + Beach,
the Architectural League of New York, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
He currently teaches Architecture at the CCA in San Francisco.
www.beigedesign.com
DOUGLAS GAUTHIER
Principal, SYSTEMarchitects llc
Douglas Gauthier is a partner with Jeremy Edmiston at SYSTEMarchitects. The practice
has been proled in Time Magazine, Metropolis, AD and Architectural Record and has won
various awards including the New Housing New York Competition, the SECCA HOME
House Competition, The Architectural Leagues Young Architect Competition, and, in 2006,
the prestigious RAIA Wilkinson Award.
Douglas holds degrees from Columbia University and the University of Notre Dame. He
has received grants from the Fulbright Program, The Graham Foundation, and The New
York State Council on the Arts, and is a 2004 MacDowell Colony Fellow. Prior to SYSTEM
his work included two collaborative projects which received the Berlin ARCHITEKTUR-
PRIES and an Architecture Magazine Award. Douglas has taught at Columbia University,
Parsons School of Design, Barnard College, Yale University and Princeton University.
www.systemarchitects.net
123
MICHAEL GREEN
Principal, mcfarlaneGreen Architecure + Design Inc
mcfarlaneGreens architecture and design is a product of collaboration, investigation, innovative
building methods. The rms experience ranges from the hands-on crafting of smaller projects
to the design and project management of large scale, complex multi-user facilities.
mcfarlaneGreens projects range from architecture, interiors, and master planning including airports,
hotels, bars and restaurants as well as civic, commercial, cultural, educational, residential, retail
and transportation projects.
www.mg-architects.ca
DOUGLAS HECKER
Partner, eldofce
Assistant Professor, Clemson University
MARTHA SKINNER
Partner, eldofce
Assistant Professor, Clemson University
Douglas Hecker and Martha Skinner are assistant professors at the School of Architecture at
Clemson University and co-founders of eldofce. Their interdisciplinary practice has been
recognized internationally through exhibitions, publications and awards, including 4 awards from
ID magazine and inclusion in this years 10th Venice Biennale of Architecture. As the 1999
Walter B. Sanders Fellow at the University of Michigan, Skinner developed Notation A/V, a
seminar about the merging of drawing and video. In 2004 Hecker founded cusa.dds, a digital
fabrication shop and research facility at Clemson. Hecker and Skinner graduated with honors
from the University of Florida and completed their studies and internships in New York City.
Skinner received the Abraham E. Kazan Fund Prize for Urban Design Studies from Cooper
Union in 1995 and Hecker the William F. Kinne Fellowship from Columbia University.
www.eld-ofce.com
ACHIM MENGES
Professor, Academy of Art and Design Offenbach, Germany
Professor, AA School of Architecture London, UK
Professor Achim Menges AADip(Hons) is an architect and partner in OCEAN NORTH. Since
2002 he has been teaching at the Architectural Association in London as Studio Master of the
Emergent Technologies and Design in the MSc/MArch Program and as Unit Master of Diploma
Unit 4. He has been a visiting professor at Rice University School of Architecture, Houston. Since
2005 he is Professor for Form Generation and Materialization at the HfG Offenbach University
for Art and Design in Germany. Achim Menges research has been published widely and received
numerous international awards.
Recent publications include the two AD issues Emergence: Morphogenetic Design
Strategies/ Techniques and Technologies in Morphogenetic Design (AD Wiley) and the book
Morpho-Ecologies with Michael Hensel (AA Publications).
www.achimmenges.net
OLIVER NEUMANN
Assistant Professor, School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
University of British Columbia
Oliver Neumann is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia School of
Architecture and Landscape Architecture. His research focuses on the role of digital technology
in the building process and in broader speculations of emerging material culture. Current building
research and teaching projects explore contemporary wood fabrication technologies and mass-
customization processes and their spatial, ecological and cultural implications.
Oliver Neumann holds a professional degree in architecture from the Technical University in
Berlin, Germany, and a Masters in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University in
New York. He is a licensed architect with the Architektenkammer in Berlin, Germany.
CHRISTOPH SCHINDLER
designtoproduction
*1973 in Erlangen (Germany), Dipl.-Ing. Architect SIA, lives and works in Zurich, Switzerland.
Christoph Schindlers special interest is the integration of tradition and technology. He
practiced architecture in ofces in Stuttgart, New York and Rotterdam. He is co-founder of
designtoproduction, a consultancy for the digital production of complex designs. In his PhD
studies at ETH Zurich, he is researching Computer aided realization of non-standard architec-
tural form in timber construction. He has conducted 1:1 timber workshops at several universities.
designtoproductions innovative timber work has been honored with various awards.
www.designtoproduction.com
FUTUREWOOD
124
MICHAEL STACEY
Principal, Michael Stacey Architects
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Michael Staceys professional life combines practice, research, writing and teaching. In 1987
he co-founded Brookes Stacey Randall Architects and in 2004 he established a new practice:
Michael Stacey Architects. His commitment to design excellence has been recognised by
numerous awards, which range from Civic Trust Awards, Bureau International du Beton
Manufacture Award and Royal Fine Art Commission Building of the Year Award, Jeux DEsprit.
Key projects include: East Corydon Station, Thames Water Tower, Wembley Gateway Urban
Regeneration Masterplan, Enschede Integrated Transport Interchange, Art House in Chelsea,
Expertex Textile Centrum and Ballingdon Bridge. Product design for the building industry
includes the invention of the Aspect 2 integrated composite cladding system, which is manu-
factured and marketed by Corus. He is also the author of a wide range of publications and
articles including Component Design (2001).
Michael Stacey is Chair in Architecture at the University of Nottingham and Research
Professor at University of Waterloo, Ontario. Themes within his research include: digital
fabrication, form nding in architecture, offsite manufacture, facade design and procurement,
emergent materials and sustainability. His interest in digital design has led to the foundation of
the Digital Fabricators Research Group, which focuses on the use of digital design tools in the
making of architecture.
SHANE WILLIAMSON
Principal, WilliamsonWilliamson
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
R. Shane Williamson is an Assistant Professor at the University of Torontos Faculty of
Architecture, Landscape and Design and principal of WilliamsonWilliamson, a Toronto-based
architecture and design studio. He is a graduate of Georgia Tech (BSc.Arch.) and Harvard
University (M.Arch.) Professor Williamsons research and creative practice involves an explora-
tion of the digitally-based convergence of representation and production afforded through
parametric software and digital fabrication. Most recently, WilliamsonWilliamson was selected
for the 2006 Young Architects Forum by the Architectural League of New York.
www.williamsonwilliamson.com
BRIAN WOUDSTRA
StructureCraft
StructureCraft Builders Inc.s focus on innovative and cost-effective aesthetic structural
solutions using wood is facilitated by the application of digital media and fabrication methods.
Structural engineering design, shop fabrication and preparation for site installation equally
benet from the development of a detailed 3D model. Despite their geometric complexity,
StructureCrafts projects are developed as pre-fabricated kits of parts to allow for reduced
site erection durations.
125
OMER ARBEL
Mass Produced Customization
All images by Shannon Loewen
PHILIP BEESLEY
Niagara Credit Union at Virgil
All images by Philip Beesley and Serge Holoduke
HAGY BELZBERG
Ahmanson Founders Room at the Music Center
All images by Benny Chan | Fotoworks
CHRISTIAN BLYT
Corelam
TM
All images by Christian Blyt
KARL DAUBMAN
Tailors after Taylorism
1-9, 11-16 images by Ply Architecture
10 image by Curt Clayton
MARTY DOSCHER
Digitally Integrated Design-Build
All images courtesy of morphosis
THOM FAULDERS
Deform House
All images courtesy of Thom Faulders
DOUGLAS GAUTHIER
BURST*003 Housing Prototype
All images by SYSTEMarchitects
MICHAEL GREEN
Time + Place
1, 5-14 image by mcfarlaneGreen Architecture + Design Inc
2-4 image by M. Green, work completed at Architectura
DOUGLAS HECKER
MARTHA SKINNER
The Dry-in House
All images by eldofce
ACHIM MENGES
Responsive Surface Structure
All images by Achim Menges and Steffen Reichert
OLIVER NEUMANN
Solid-Wood-Wall Cabin + Outdoor Theater Roof Structure
1, 11 image by Ana Sandrin
2 image by Carl Julius Claussen and Goran Jakovljevic
3 drawing by Goran Jakovljevic
4 drawing by Carl Julius Claussen and Goran Jakovljevic
5-6 photo by Hundegger Maschinenbau GmbH
7, 9, 12 photo by Oliver Neumann
8 image by Daniel Schmidt
10 design and fabrication by Daniel Schmidt, photo by Oliver Neumann
13 model by Mike Lemon and Ana Sandrin, photo by Mike Lemon
Image Credits
FUTUREWOOD
126
MICHAEL STACEY
Canonbury Canopy
1, 7 copyright David Grandorge
2-6 copyright Michael Stacey
Fast Construction: Slow Architecture
1-2, 7-10, 13-15 courtesy of Suffolk County Council
3-4, 11 copyright Brookes Stacey Randall
5-6 copyright Michael Stacey
12 copyright Jonathan Friedman
SHANE WILLIAMSON
Stock Space
All images by Shane Williamson
BRIAN WOUDSTRA
Wood Wave Panel System
All images copyright StructureCraft Builders Inc
CHRISTOPH SCHINDLER
Building Continuous Digital Planning Processes on Timber Infrastructure
All images copyright designtoproduction
127
Conference Credits
The papers of this book were published on the occasion of the Canadian Design
Research Network (CDRN) Parametric Modeling and Digital Wood Fabrication
Workshop and Symposium held at the Forest Sciences Centre at the University
of British Columbia, Vancouver on February 15-24, 2007. The event was organized
in collaboration with the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and the
Centre for Advanced Wood Processing at the University of British Columbia, and the
School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University. Financial support
for the conference was provided by the CDRN, BC Wood WORKS!, Dr. Ray Cole,
Director of the UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, and Dr. Paul
Mcfarlane, Head of the UBC Wood Science Department.
Organizers
Oliver Neumann Workshop Chair
Iain Macdonald
Robert Woodbury
Assistants
Julia Jamrozik Future Wood: Innovation in Building Design and Construction
Exhibition coordination and curatorial assistance
Nick Neisingh Graphic design and organization
Heidi Eitel Event coordination (SALA)
Coral Voss Event coordination (CAWP)
Publication
Philip Beesley Editor
Oliver Neumann Editor
Eric Bury Art Director
Jon Cummings Graphic Designer
Julia Jamrozik Coordination
Monika Szewczyk Copy Editor
Todd Macyk Design Production
Robin Paxton-Beesley Design Production
Charisma Panchapakesan Design Production


FUTUREWOOD

You might also like