Timber-to-timber structure, Robotic assembly
Gradual Assemblies explores the possibilities of robotic assembly of timber structures for the creation of a shading pergola.
At the heart of this project stands a new timber-to-timber construction method, in which short slats are held in space and locked by non-parallel wood dowels. The assembly of the structure is made possible by a setup of two robotic arms suspended from a gantry, which allows to position and hold a timber slat in position by one arm, while the other arm drills the holes for the dowels. Taking advantage of the hygroscopic behavior of wood, the dowels are pre-dried in an oven to facilitate their manual insertion into the pre-drilled holes. Once moisture is applied, the volumetric expansion maximizes the frictional force between dowels and slats stabilizing the connection without the need for nails, glue or screws.
The complex geometric inter-dependencies of the material system required the development of a tailored computational model for the design of the pavilion, that is based on network data-structure and aims to control the shade by alternating the density of the wooden elements. The design platform integrates the generation of the production data that control the fabrication process.
The L-shaped pavilion covers 250 square meters of terrace of the Swiss cultural institute in Rome and consists of a total of 700 slats and 2700 dowels. It was segmented in 22 modules that were produced in the Robotic Fabrication Laboratory of ETH Zuirch and were then transported and assembled in to Rome.
Acknowledgments
Gramazio Kohler Research. This project was developed during the three months project called “Gradual Assemblies” in ETH dFab, Zurich
Teaching team: Hannes Mayer (programme director), David Jenny (project lead), Augusto Gandia, Matthias Helmreich, Andreas Thoma
Students: Sahar Barzani, Fernando Cena, Georgia Chousou, Alexander Enz, Moon Young Jeong, Frank Lin, Matteo Lomaglio, Ioanna Mitroupolou, Haruna Okawa, Rafael Pastrana, Francisco Regalado, Jetana Ruangjun, Jun Su, Nizar Taha, Yao Wang, Zong-Ru Wu, Angela Yoo
Photos (1-4) copyright: Martina Cirese / cirese.martina@gmail.com
Photos (5-6): Jetana Ruangjun