Material Information: Integrating Material Characteristics and Behavior in Computational Design for Performative Wood Construction

Abstract

Architecture as a material practice is still predominantly based on design approaches that are characterized by a hierarchical relationship that prioritizes the generation of geometric information for the description of architectural systems and elements over material specific information. Thus, in the early design stage, the material’s innate characteristics and inherent capacities remain largely unconsidered. This is particularly evident in the way wood constructions are designed today. In comparison to most construction materials that are industrially produced and thus relatively homogeneous and isotropic, wood is profoundly different in that it is a naturally grown biological tissue with a highly differentiated material makeup . This paper will present research investigating how the transition from currently predominant modes of representational Computer Aided Design to algorithmic Computational Design allows for a significant change in employing wood’s complex anisotropic behaviour, resulting from its differentiated anatomical structure. In computational design, the relation between procedural formation, driving information, and ensuing form, enables the systematic integration of material information. This materially informed computational design processes will be explained through two research projects and the resultant prototype structures. The first project shows how an information feedback between material properties, system behaviour, the generative computational process, and robotic manufacturing allows for unfolding material-specific gestalt and tapping into the performative potential of wood. The second project focuses on embedding the unique material information and anatomical features of individual wooden elements in a continuous scanning, computational design and digital fabrication process, and thus introduces novel ways of integrating the biological variability and natural irregularities of wood in architectural design.