Developing a fabrication workflow for irregular sawlogs

Abstract

In this article, we suggest using contemporary manufacturing technologies to integrate material properties with architectural design tools, revealing new possibilities for the use of wood in architecture. Through an investigative approach, material capacities and fabrication methods are explored and combined towards establishing new workflows and architectural expressions, where material, fabrication and result are closely interlinked. The experimentation revolves around discarded, crooked oak logs, doomed to be used as firewood due to their irregularity. This project treats their diverging shapes differently by offering unique processing to each log informed by its particularities. We suggest here a way to use the natural forms and properties of sawlogs to generate new structures and spatial conditions. In this article, we discuss the scope of this approach and provide an example of a workflow for handling the discrete shapes of natural sawlogs in a system that involve the collection of material, scanning/digitisation, handling of a stockpile, computer analysis, design and robotic manufacturing. The creation of this specific method comes from a combination of investigation of wood as a material, review of existing research in the field, studies of the production lines in the current wood industry and experimentation through our in-house laboratory facilities. As such, the workflow features several solutions for handling the complex and different shapes and data of natural wood logs in a highly digitised machining and fabrication environment. This up-cycling of discarded wood supply establishes a non-standard workflow that utilises non-standard material stock and leads to a critical articulation of today’s linear material economy. The project becomes part of an ambition to reach sustainable development goals and technological innovation in global and resource-intensive architecture and building industry.