Material Strategies in Digital Fabrication

Christopher Beorkrem

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781317225782
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Méthodes et matériel d'architecture

In this second edition of Material Strategies in Digital Fabrication are new case studies, improved wayfinding, the inclusion of composites and plastics, and references to similar strategies between different projects. In 400 step-by-step diagrams dissecting 39 case studies in 10 countries on 3 continents, the book shows you how material performance drives the digital fabrication process and determines technique. The book identifies the important characteristics of each material, including connection types, relative costs, deformation, color, texture, finish, dimensional properties, durability, and weathering and waterproofing to link design outcomes to form. The book is divided into five main chapters by material; wood, metal, concrete/masonry, composites/plastics, and recycled/pre-cycled, to help you reference construction techniques for the fabrication machines you have on-hand.

Includes projects by SHoP Architects, Gramazio & Kohler, Schindlersalmeron, The Institute for Computational Design (Achim Menges, Patkau Architects, Sebastien Wierinck, Blue Dot Furniture, Marble Fairbanks, Studio Gang Architects, Macdowell.Tomova, Thomas Heatherwick Studio, Heather Roberge, MX3D, Matsys, Asbjorn Sondergaard, Block Research Group (Phillipe Block), Ball Nogues Studio, Matter Design, WORK Architecture Company, and SoftLab.

CHAPTER 1: TIMBER/WOOD

Wood products are an intuitive choice for material-constrained design. Regularized components, easy and affordable machine processing, and a multitude of connection types define wood as one of the more varied yet visibly constrained materials architects can use. The examples included in this chapter will vary in scale from thin wood veneers to heavy timber and processing techniques ranging from a handsaw to a 7-axis robotic arm.

The projects illustrated here are representative of the processes employed by Charles and Ray Eames in their furniture studies. Drawn to new materials and processes, the Eames worked to develop a method for molding plywood in more than one direction, matching it to simple ergonomic forms. They worked ad hoc with their “Kazam” machine, which pressed electrically heated plaster molds against layers of glued veneers with pneumatic pressure supplied by a bicycle pump. These developments were first put into mass-production not for furniture but for the production of molded plywood leg splints, for the US Navy (they would manufacture more than 150,000 by the end of World War II).

This work would eventually lead to a relationship with the Herman Miller Furniture Company, who would market and distribute many of the Eames designs. Most importantly, the DCM chair design, which through the use of a doubly curved seat surface created a structurally rigid yet comfortable chair. This combination of structural expression and ergonomics is what provides a clear trajectory to many of the projects outlined in this chapter. In particular the ICD/ITKE Pavilion by Achim Menges, which uses CNC precision to lock plywood strips into elastic bending compression, creating undulating sets of structural units. Each plywood component has a purpose, either in tension or compression, balancing with one another, to create rigid strips of what is an otherwise elastic material, 3/8″ (10mm) thick plywood.

In computational manufacturing, wood products are an excellent material selection for testing parametric conditions. Off-the-shelf wood products come in manageable dimensions, capable of being easily and accurately cut. They can be repaired and worked with comparative ease. Additionally, wood products have a vast set of options meriting exploration of off-the-shelf connection types, affording many different geometric compositions. The thin profiles and smaller load capacities of wood products afford shorter span lengths, meaning that wood is typically used in smaller-scale designs. However, the projects represented in this chapter include both industrial design and architectural-scale detailing and assembly.

Each project in this chapter will provide evidence of constraints defined by wood’s material performance and connection details. The details often employ off-the-shelf components (Dunescape) or minimally customized objects used in unconventional ways. Wood products, when paired with appropriate machinery, can be designed with built-in connection details. Alternatively, the formal logic of a design can be an expression of the performance of the manufacturing process, not just the material (Stratifications, The Sequential Wall).

Wood products have a unique phenomenological character. They are intended to be inhabited in more tactile and intimate ways than almost any other material conventionally employed in building design. The huge variety of color and texture in both manufactured wood products and natural grain woods can be used to mark their cultural significance and to note the craft of their assembly.

The structural capacity of wood products is varied and is most typically driven by their cross section. Wood products are typically supported in at least two directions (creating a diaphragm), as in plywood, by alternating granular layers, or by laterally bracing members on their perpendicular. Connection types for wood products are as varied as their use, and can be as simple as nails, glue, or screws or as complex as custom joinery created with multi-axis CNC machines.

Typically, the projects in this chapter have components cut with CNC mills and routers, or robotic armatures with a certain number of axes (typically 2.5–7) and a mechanical head, which spins a router bit upwards of 20,000 times per minute. The radius of each bit defines half the width of its cut, following a command along its centerline, creating a cut that can provide both constraints (no interior corners) and opportunities (beveled edges, and depth cuts). Small parts, with dimensions less than the width of a bit, are often destroyed or chipped during the milling process. Typical bits are incapable of tight interior corners, where they leave a radial or fillet at any corner. This makes it difficult to create accurate interior notching for connecting components perpendicular to each other as in a conventional two-directional, eggcrate section model. This is unique from other CNC tooling for metals and plastics, which often have a much thinner tooling head (lasers, plasma, or water-jets). Though lasers and water-jets can also be used to cut veneers and plywood.

DUNESCAPE

SHoP ARCHITECTS NEW YORK – 2000

Dunescape was constructed in 2000 as the inaugural winner of the Young Architects Program, an award given to a design firm to construct a temporary installation for a “beach party” in the courtyard of the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, NY. Dunescape established a process for design as a section-first exercise. SHoP mapped the human occupation of space through a series of sectional diagrams and organized those sections on the site to generate a form. Each section cut was developed to express typical activities found at the beach (cabana, beach chair, umbrella, boogie board, and surf). The forms were delimited by the material constraint of layers of 2″ × 2″ cedar wood members.

SHoP was first to articulate a process defined by the pairing of avant-garde modeling techniques with an awareness of how a simple system could function as a symbiotic, structural, formal, and material logic.¹ The intent was to create an installation with unskilled labor (paid architectural students) and without the use of any advanced machining processes. All of the processor-heavy work occurred through design development and was constrained to hours spent modeling in computer. This preemptive processing allowed for a relatively simple construction process.

The initial form evolved from a series of simple diagrammatic sections within the courtyard. The form was defined as a surface generated by these sections, creating a clear linear logic. The essential character of the form and the functionality of each section is predicated on the pairing of both the programmatic and structural sections (1:1:1).

SOFTWARE:

• Rhinoceros 3D

• Printed full-scale templates

MATERIAL CONSTRAINTS:

• Cedar is durable yet soft; the intent of the project was to create a platform for all of the activities of a typical beachgoer, and therefore needed to be both a surface to walk on but also one to sit and lounge on.

• Relative availability and affordability; the project had a budget of $10,000 and needed to withstand fairly intense use during parties thrown each weekend.

• Simple structural configurations; truss sections could be used to resist vertical loads while layering of the cross sections created a diaphragm for resisting horizontal forces.

• Color and texture; the consistent glowing brown coloration of the installation ...