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.