Robotic Sewing: A Textile Approach Towards the Computational Design and Fabrication of Lightweight Timber Shells

Abstract

Unlike any other building material, timber has seen numerous innovations in design, manufacturing, and assembly processes in recent years. Currently available technology not only allows architects to freely shape building elements but also to define their micro- or macroscopic material make-up and therefore the material itself. At the same time, timber shells have become a focus of research in wood architecture by rethinking both construction typologies and material application. Their main advantage, however, also poses a challenge to its construction: As the shell is both the load-bearing structure as well as enclosure, its segmentation and the individual segment’s connections become increasingly important. Their complex and often differentiated geometries do not allow for standardized timber joints, and with decreasing material thickness, conventional connection techniques become less feasible. The research presented in this paper investigates textile strategies for the fabrication of ultra-lightweight timber shells in architecture. Specifically, a robotic sewing method is developed in conjunction with a computational design method for the development of a new construction system that was evaluated through a large-scale prototype building.