The Sequential Roof

Abstract

Computational design provides the opportunity to integrate all planning disciplines and stakeholders of wood architecture from the earliest planning stages and, by consequence, to span across the statutory design, fabrication, and construction phases. Roofing layers, skylights, smoke exhaust, sprinklers, lighting and other systems are tightly integrated into the roof structure. The spatial density of the trusses enables seamless integration of the structure with various subsystems. On the outside, they form a continuous surface onto which weatherproofing layers can be directly installed, without the need of secondary boarding. One of the algorithms, for example, generated the geometrically intricate model of the structure, its volumetric representation and an abstracted data model for the structural analysis software and fabrication simulation. Integrating cutting-edge robotic fabrication methods with advanced computational design techniques opens up new opportunities for formal expression as well as construction methods. The fully automated robotic assembly facilitated the use of small elements and simple, generic and notch-free joints.