The project “Generative Crossed Timber System” creates an open-ended timber system that can form different architectural elements by applying the notion of generative design, the materiality of wood, and digital fabrication. This project was named the best in student design in Fast Company’s 2022 Innovation by Design Awards.
A cross-referencing method—which includes geometry study, material study, fabrication tests, and structural analysis—was developed by this research collective to serve as the driving force of this project. The feedback among each approach provides guidelines for future research and practice. The geometry study shaped the form-searching process and provided theoretical support for the unit design. It provided greater understanding of the physical properties of different geometries and connection methods. The material study focused on material dimension, grain orientation, stiffness, and elastic properties.
Three key elements of the final design came from the fabrication test: 1) the milling speed of the current robot setup limits the scale of final structure, 2) the dimension limitation and maximum load of the robot affects the form and size of the unit, and 3) the accuracy of the robotic fabrication and the bending behavior of wood material during the change of air humidity required more tolerance to be considered during the unit design process. The final design was also guided by the feedback of the structural analysis, which centered around the structural performance.
The final form consists of 81 pieces of pine lumber that are only connected by notches of different dimensions. The single size of each piece is 1”x 7” x 28”. The column-like structure can be re-formed to other architectural elements by rearranging the units and can be extended to other scales by aggregating through the opened notches.
The project “Robotic Serpentine Wall” investigates new, unexpected uses of wood to construct an inhabitable structure. It created a structure that 1) celebrates steam bending’s ability to radically change wood’s structural potential; 2) is inhabitable, improves the site on which it was built, and is connected with the history of its larger context; and 3) was data- and mathematically driven.
This project responded to its site—the North Terrace of UVA’s School of Architecture—in two ways. First, it negotiated the step between the ground and the top of the planter box, a distance of 26 ½”, in a way that encourages small group interactions. Second, the form responds to the complex history of serpentine walls at UVA. This sinusoidal shape was manipulated to create a structure that produced a small gathering area on one side and a seat on the other. It was then reverse-engineered to minimize the number of unique components upon construction.
Several experiments were conducted to test the amount that pieces of birch plywood and oak plywood reverted to their original shape following steaming and either bending or twisting; birch plywood performed better in both. A third experiment determined plywood pieces needed to be a minimum length of 24” to prevent cracking as a result of twisting.
Prototyping the structure led to the discovery that the primary pieces work in tension, not compression. This in turn resulted in the inclusion of additional support pieces for greater structural stability.
The final design was constructed through a complex process of cutting, twisting and bending, and slotting the pieces together. Each piece was machine cut according to the specific measurements dictated by the digital design. They were then steamed before being twisted and bent into position, allowed to dry, and put together. The final assembly process revealed that the connections between wall sections were necessary for the structure to be free-standing.
This project was awarded the 2021 Bruce Abbey Technology Award. It was featured on the University of Virginia School of Architecture’s website.
“Pattern-dominant Bending Tectonics” investigates the physical and mechanical properties of wood in combination with computational simulation to explore multiscale spatial forms in a freeform, self-standing installation. The connection between physical experimentation and computational design was key in this project.
Program Development
The design and assembly of 1/8’’ birch plywood segments were inspired by two-dimensional patterns. Bristol board, which has similar physical properties to plywood, was used as an experimental prototype to test a variety of cutting patterns. The resulting geometry deformations were used in the research and fabrication of the designed wood module.
The computational design tool developed in this project enabled the inclusion of material characteristics and fabrication parameters in the design process. Rather than analyzing the wood prototype manually, the geometries of each individual module were incorporated into a simulation and optimization process for computational control. One key focus was the digital chain from the overall design to the structural analysis and fabrication. Wood modules on two freeform facades and their connecting structures were formed using Kangaroo and Circle Packing in Grasshopper. These generated 182 geometrically distinct birch plywood plates for this self-standing installation.
The development, design, and fabrication of Pattern-dominant Bending Tectonics demonstrated the connection between physical experiments and computational design and simulation. When generating three-dimensional forms from two dimensions, optimized patterns cut into the wood help bend and buckle the thin wooden plates. They also help harness connections between multiple layers in both the constructional and computational processes, which in turn enable the exploration of multiscale spatial forms in the final global design.
Self-Forming Hygrosensitive Tectonics: Developing Doubly Curved Adaptive Morphologies from Uniplanar Bilaminate Construction
Description
This research develops a system of hygroscopically actuated bilaminated panels to generate self-forming doubly curved structures from flattened, uniplanar constructions. This investigation seeks to expand the existing research on the architectural relevance of hygroscopic behavior in wood materials by responding to the challenges of meso-scale structural applications. While exposure to moisture is typically restricted in traditional wood construction, emerging research has attempted to celebrate wood’s unique hygroscopic properties, leveraging anisotropic variation in hygroscopic expansion to create bilaminated components which bend in response to changes in humidity. This bending behavior, produced by unequal forces within the passive and active layers, allows for the design of materially programmed, environmentally responsive architectural elements.
After developing a humidity-controlled fabrication chamber, a series of experiments were run that explored the effect of materiality, dimensionality, and orientation on hygroscopic behavior. These tests resulted in the decision to design a maple-spruce bilamination system that manipulated the thickness of the spruce passive layer as the key variable in affecting principal curvature. The passive layer thickness required to produce a variety of digitally modeled geometries was derived from the creation of a computational model based on the Timoshenko bending formula. A catalogue of joinery and surface division procedures was established in an attempt to achieve monoclastic, synclastic, and anticlastic physical geometries. Responding to the limitations of these experiments (including the dimensional constraints of available lumber materials), a system of narrow paneled elements whose passive layers fell within a limited set of thicknesses was developed. By flipping the orientation of the active layer within a single, flat surface construction, bidirectional curvature was achieved. This produced a self-forming standing structure whose final morphology exists along an adaptive continuum and that responds directly to changes in humidity conditions within its exhibition space.
Author and Image Credit
Yin-Yu Fong, Kirk Gordon, Nicholas Grimes, Mengzhe Ye
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