A new student-led project from the Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA) that combines robotic fabrication processes with new software applications has been shared with Archinect as part of the school's Design + Make 2022-24 cohort. 

The 'Tree and Truss' project is a mass timber structure made from locally sourced materials and designed to support the columns and trusses of a new lecture hall standing in Hooke Park on the school's Woodland Campus.

Together, the students say: "The project explores a hybrid structure that seamlessly transitions from natural geometry to engineered timber and regards the tree as column and the truss as beam as the fundamental points of departure. We design through making and aim to work with the material behavior of timber."

The design's structural system was comprised of four key components:

1. Cedar Foundation: A foundation made from Western Red Cedar was first produced using a robotic chainsaw and a series of “in-depth studies” of diverse Japanese scarf joints. This “altered the dimensions of the geometry aligning the forces at play and the tree diameter” while at the same time providing evidence as to best the appreciation of the specific characteristics of the material.
2. Tree Columns: This combined robotic chainsaws and manual finishing strategies. This method thus "strived for maximum flexibility and tolerance as it accounted for the many complexities involved with assembly and difference" in the relationship between the tree and glulam connectors.
3. Glulam Connections: Bespoke blanks were produced via the use of a kiln and other complex "glu up" strategies. These where then subjected to CNC milling that produced a central node, which connects the unique tree with the trusses.
4. Trusses: The trusses are composite structures which utilize small diameter branches and engineered timber, augmented by research from the Field Station that produced a round wood compression component called a Panda Claw tension web member. This helped refine the design and material understanding, resulting in a "highly engineered timber composite" made from a hardwood inlay that in turn reinforces the softwood.

MArch students Miquel Chavez Cornejo, Rafael Ferres Echavarren, Yiling Zhou, and Sai Snigdha Pinisetti joined Nicholas Volpe, James Kristian Dent, Maisie Hoile, Yungang Chen, Yifan Wang, Yiting Sun, Joaquin Mosquera Iragorri, Guixin Lin from the school’s MA/MSc program and were guided by program directors with help from staffers Emmanuel Vercruysse, Kate Davies, Wyatt Armstrong, Will Gowland, and Sam Turner Baldwin. 

Interested in learning more? You can review other completed projects from the AA's Design + Make program here.