Sille Pihlak

 

It seems that the more distant and incomprehensible are the generation of form and geometry, the more familiar we should be with the material we wish to form. Nanomaterials use sensors to map their surroundings, change their shape by means of kinetics or they are exceptionally resilient. The studies of nanomaterials seem to be describing the building material of the future. In fact, all the given features are also characteristic of our local raw material timber, however, there has been no competence to implement it in the given way. Could the highly nuanced material suit the construction of a digital body better than the widely used plastic powder 3D printing?

Material Knowledge in Architecture

In the open lecture series of the Estonian Academy of Arts, the researcher of the Danish Centre for Information Technology and Architecture (CITA) Martin Tamke presented his study on bending timber for lightweight constructions. The directional strength of timber allows to use bending to create a shell with its elements reacting simultaneously due to tension and gravity. In case of such constructions, it is possible to create large timber framing domes reacting to the surrounding conditions (e.g. snow load). The students of the Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) and the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Stuttgart made thin wood panels react to humidity and constructed a pavilion that closes during damp periods (e.g. in the rain) and opens its shutters again while drying like a pine cone.¹ The researchers of the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London² have found a way to use the natural tree trunk branching as a constructional element. The tree fork is traditionally cut out for the sake of machine-like standardisation and replaced with metal plates, bolts or tenons. In London, they developed and tested a way to make use of the tree fork. Before it is cut, the live tree is scanned with software analysing the gathered information. Eventually, only the trees suitable for construction are cut down while others are left to grow. The characteristics of the suitable tree trunks are used in developing the architectural solution.
The same technique is also employed by the Estonian flooring manufacturer Bolefloor. By scanning the natural floorboard growth-lines and decking perimeter, the computer will find the optimum neighbour for each floorboard. This way, the unique design comes to value every single floorboard. The implementation of all the above-mentioned methods requires the maintenance of extensive big data. We do not make proper use of the full potential of machinery and still employ it to produce tenons that have been cut with an axe over the centuries without looking for new solutions. If it makes no difference for a computer-assisted machine whether it cuts 500 tenons at the same angle or every time at a different angle, why should we hold on to standardisation?³

Paleo-Technologies during the Neo-Technological Era⁴

The American political theorist and anarchist Kevin Amos Carson claims that the potential of modern machinery is still unused. The potential of neo-technologies such as small electric home appliances has not been employed for the creation of a new economic model, instead, they have been placed in the paleo-technical framework to produce objects that we have needed so far. Similar comparisons would also apply in the Estonian timber industry: the machines are used to make objects that have always been made (tenons cut with an axe) with the full range of their possibilities largely unused. Jean Pouve says that in technology it is better to lead than tag along. Estonian timber and plywood industrialists and CLT manufacturers have five-axis CNC machines which produce architecture dating back centuries. By understanding and rethinking the machine, we can lead the development of technology. A new timber installation is constructed in front of the Museum of Estonian Architecture for Tallinn Architecture Biennale. The pavilion must be completed in collaboration between the winner of the international competition and Estonian timber industry. This time, Belgian architect Gilles Retsin explores the possibilities of panel materials such as cross-laminated timber and plywood to provide lightweight and easily erected constructional solutions for inexpensive housing.

Material Valuation

In Estonia, there are more forests than ever before, while in Europe, there are fewer forests than ever before. Now is the right time to promote timber construction. Much of the timber harvested in Estonia is exported as cheap raw material. A so-called traditional log house that is taken from the Estonian forest to the Alps is less profitable for the local economy than it potentially could be. Designers should be given the opportunity to provide log house solutions on the basis of contemporary needs, language of form and manufacturing possibilities. This
way we could launch a product with our own handwriting that would cover several sectors and the design could provide added value to the material. Increasingly more timber could also remain in Estonia: although every other private house is made of wood, there are virtually no such public buildings. Instead of transporting steel from India or mixing concrete, the next school, kindergarten or opera house could be made of wood. Pursuant to European Parliament Directives,⁵ public buildings must soon be designed as zero-energy buildings
and thus the idea of timber construction must be introduced already now. It is suggested in the draft currently prepared by the Ministry of Finance that half of the buildings commissioned in the next twenty years must be made of wood. This provides the local timber manufacturers with the opportunity to see their creation in the urban space and make their knowledge of energy efficient constructions and optimum manufacturing circulation more visible. Instead of the next drywall shopping centre or apartment building, we could build only wooden buildings in Estonia similarly to the town of Växjö in Sweden or the borough of Hackney in London. Annexes, restoration projects, additional floors – all this could be done with a material that weighs half as much as concrete.

From Vision to Method

An architect must be aware of various materials, technological possibilities and the key principles of an energy efficient building in order to design a (urban) space suitable for the digital society. As stated by Mario Carpo,⁶ there is soon no room for the Italian humanist Leon Battista Alberti’s understanding that the completed building is either the identical copy of the architect’s vision or a set of the mass-produced recurrent elements of the 19th and 20th century. By using digital processes, there will be no need to produce the same element in the same method. The work of Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi did not end with the completion of construction drawings: the implementation of innovative ideas also required a new construction method. By working on a new stone lifting device in the muddy construction site or on the ships carrying marble, Brunelleschi constantly demanded that technology be updated. All that resulted in the construction of the largest dome of the Renaissance era, Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence. The contemporary visions of computer-assisted spaces on screen require architects who consider the possibilities provided by the material and technology and integrate research with design or, vice versa, create methods to optimally implement their ideas. In his book “The Ten Commandments for the Digital Age”, media theorist Douglas Rushkoff encourages everyone to take the first step, as there are only two options: “program or be programmed”. It is important to understand that if we allow the machine to lead us instead of us leading the machine, we can only tag along and never lead the way as it is the case in our IT sector. Smart materials require smart users in order to create smart buildings for a smart society.