HISTORICAL TIMBER JOINT ELEMENTS: A RULE-BASED APPROACH

Proceedings of the 41st International Conference on Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe (eCAADe) [Volume 1]

Mortise-tenon joints (MTJs) have widely been used in traditional Chinese timber frames (TCTF) while rarely applied in contemporary design. This research investigates whether computational design of discrete architecture through employing the shape grammars approach allows for flexible timber architecture with MTJs to re-imagine the TCTF for contemporary architecture. Through critical analysis of a few available frameworks in timber design systems, this paper develops a new framework that combines MTJs and discrete timber blocks to generate architectural forms through rule-based shape grammars. To this end, this research initially explores the characteristics and importance of MTJs in TCTF, along with the potential of its application to contemporary architecture. It then analyses the reconfiguration of timber blocks with MTJs in discrete strategies. Further, it explores the applicability of parametric shape grammars in generating various architectural forms of discrete blocks with MTJs. Ultimately, this paper synthesizes the relevance of MTJs' principles and modular system to discrete design strategies and shape grammars for the framework of a flexible timber design system. This system will create a hybrid design approach to timber design with MTJs for contemporary applications in further research.

Construction Robotics, 2017

The architectural heritage of Valparaíso, Chile is disappearing before our eyes while all the conventional resources to reverse this situation seem to have been exhausted. A large portion of the existing historic building substance consists of timber frames that succumb one after another to weathering, termites and structural fires. The acute shortage of traditional timber framers and a weak local heritage industry feed investors' disinterest in preserving the original structural conception of these timberframed buildings when they need restoration or rehabilitation. There is a need for technological innovation enabling one-off production of complex-skilled joinery at competitive costs. Robotic machining emerges as a flexible and customizable alternative to the missing timber framers and the insensible substitution of original timber joints for metal fasteners. We present a proof-of-concept of parametric 3D modelling and robot path generation using a single visual scripting environment integrated to CAD software that requires no knowledge of robot programming and might encourage designers as well as small-and medium-sized manufacturers to develop a local heritage industry. Several classes of timber joints found in Valparaíso were parameterized and instances thereof manufactured by a six-axis industrial robot with a spindle mounted thereon to gain empirical knowledge of the entire process. Experimental results show that procedural modelling of parts, assemblies, and tool paths in the tested visual scripting environment is time-consuming and rather complicated for conventional architectural thinking, but is largely compensated by its software and hardware interaction potential.

Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe - HAL - Archive ouverte HAL, 2014

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The research presented in this paper revolves around the experimental development of the morpho-structural potential of folded architectural structures made of wood. The aims are to develop an innovative system for timber used in sustainable construction and to increase the inventory of wood architectural tectonics. First, this article provides a characterization of the digital chain associated to the development of non-standard folded structures consisting of wood panels. The purpose is to study the architectural design process from parametric modeling (through CNC machining) and assembly operations to production by way of a full-scale experimental pavilion. Secondly, a number of analytical experiments have been performed towards the completion of the pavilion, in order to validate the design process.

Transactions in Gis, 2016

Buildings and other man-made objects, for many reasons such as economical or aesthetic, are often characterized by their symmetry. The latter predominates in the design of building footprints and building parts such as fac¸ades. Thus the identification and modeling of this valuable information facilitates the reconstruction of these buildings and their parts. This article presents a novel approach for the automatic identification and modelling of symmetries and their hierarchical structures in building footprints, providing an important prior for fac¸ade and roof reconstruction. The uncertainty of symmetries is explicitly addressed using supervised machine learning methods, in particular Support Vector Machines (SVMs). Unlike classical statistical methods, for SVMs assumptions on the a priori distribution of the data are not required. Both axial and translational symmetries are detected. The quality of the identified major and minor symmetry axes is assessed by a least squares based adjustment. Context-free formal grammar rules are used to model the hierarchical and repetitive structure of the underlying footprints. We present an algorithm which derives grammar rules based on the previously acquired symmetry information and using lexical analysis describing regular patterns and palindrome-like structures. This offers insights into the latent structures of building footprints and therefore describes the associated fac¸ade in a relational and compact way.

… -remote-sens-spatial-inf-sci.net

This paper outlines a new approach for generating digital heritage models from laser scan or photogrammetric data using Historic Building Information Modelling (HBIM). HBIM is a plug-in for Building Information Modelling (BIM) software that uses parametric library objects and procedural modelling techniques to automate the modelling stage. The HBIM process involves a reverse engineering solution whereby parametric interactive objects representing architectural elements are mapped onto laser scan or photogrammetric survey data. A library of parametric architectural objects has been designed from historic manuscripts and architectural pattern books. These parametric objects were built using an embedded programming language within the ArchiCAD BIM software called Geometric Description Language (GDL). Procedural modelling techniques have been implemented with the same language to create a parametric building façade which automatically combines library objects based on architectural rules and proportions. Different configurations of the façade are controlled by user parameter adjustment. The automatically positioned elements of the façade can be subsequently refined using graphical editing while overlaying the model with orthographic imagery. Along with this semi-automatic method for generating façade models, manual plotting of library objects can also be used to generate a BIM model from survey data. After the 3D model has been completed conservation documents such as plans, sections, elevations and 3D views can be automatically generated for conservation projects.

2005

Challenges for the study of Islamic architecture include its abundance and diversity in expression and its classification based on distinct functional or stylistic types. We address these issues by presenting shape grammars as a methodology for the analysis and design generation of Islamic architecture, with a specific example in the form of a parametric shape grammar for central Asian caravanserais. The grammar is developed by identifying distinct design types. Shape rules are created based on a study of the spatial elements and their organisation in the designs. We illustrate the utility of the grammar by deriving an extant design and as well as, previously unknown designs. We conclude by discussing possible extensions to the current grammar and future work involving the development of a grammar based framework for the comparative analysis of medieval Islamic courtyard buildings.

The research agenda of this paper is to create a visual database, containing the key joints used by late medieval carpenters, in the construction of vernacular timber-framed, open-hall dwellings (c1400-1530). This will be achieved by employing virtual, three dimensional (3D) technologies, to create solid geometric objects that emulate their real-world counterparts, through the utilisation of 3d studio max. This will result in the creation of a virtual library, containing the pre-formed joints.

Fab10 Barcelona, 2014

Authored with Antonio J. Lara Bocanegra and Ismael Domínguez de la Blanca. After a relative decline during Modernism, the use of large-scale timber structures is becoming a growing trend at the beginning of the 21st Century. Different vectors converge to make this happen. The most relevant of these vectors being the increasing technification and diversification of wood products as construction materials, such as micro-laminated and cross-laminated panels, the contemporary demands around sustainability, and the development of digital tools to design, simulate and fabricate innovative and efficient architectural structures that take advantage of timber properties. The present paper analyses the complex panorama of recent works approaching them from the point of view of resistant structure and form generation.

2013

The research presented further is part of the Digital Alberti research project, which aims to determine the influence of Alberti’s treatise on Architecture, De re aedificatoria, on the Portuguese Renaissance architecture, through the use of a computational framework. One of the project tasks entailed the translation of the treatise’s textual descriptions concerning the morphological, proportional and algorithmic principles of the sacred buildings into a shape grammar. Subsequently a computational model was developed, in order to proceed to the derivation of examples of the same language. This article discusses the use of analytical shape grammars to undertake an architectural analysis, as well as the fact of the source of this grammar and correspondent architectural language to be a text instead of a set of buildings and designs. It reviews the methodology to implement the shape grammar and describes the several stages of development, following the interpretation of treatise into a ...