News

Image: Michael Braun
Published: 14 November 2022

Research Demonstrator: Sustainable Digital Timber

Realizing a 1:1 research demonstrator, the professorships Schneider, Schütz and Willmann were able to show the potential of upcycling and designing low-engineered free-form timber structures using offcuts (a waste material from industrial timber production). Of particular importance was the development of an integral design-to-fabrication workflow, including all steps from digitizing offcuts to their robotic assembly, and, ultimately, closing the digital chain. The resulting timber morphologies allow for a convergence of distinct aesthetic and structural capabilities, enabling a differentiated aggregation of material under digital guidance, and featuring high geometrical flexibility and minimal material waste. The work has been pursued as master thesis by Dominik Reisach within the Bauhaus architecture master's program and will be published in Spring 2023.

A special thanks goes to Rettenmeier Holzindustrie Hirschberg GmbH as well as to the workshops of the Bauhaus-Universität, especially to Ringo Gunkel, Christian Hanke, Matthias Henkelmann, and Christian Möhwald. A further thanks goes to Michael Braun for his precious support in the implementation of the robotic milling process and the documentation of the demonstrator.