The Sequential Wall

Performance Based Design in Robotic Timber Construction

The Sequential Wall investigates the architectonic and constructive potential of additive digital fabrication in timber construction. A 6axis industry robot first cuts commercially available wooden slats to length and stacks them to walls. Functional requirements to an external timber shell such as insulation and constructive weather protection are the basis for every design. Water shedding experiments and other physical tests inform the algorithmic arrangement of the slats in space. The combination of computational design strategies and physical experiments allows transforming the functional requirements into new potential for the design. The project was initiated and developed in the context of the elective course program of the Professorship for Architecture and Digital Fabrication at ETH Zurich.

architecture plan or photo
ETH Zurich
architecture plan or photo
ETH Zurich
architecture plan or photo
ETH Zurich
architecture plan or photo
ETH Zurich
architecture plan or photo
ETH Zurich
architecture plan or photo
ETH Zurich
architecture plan or photo
ETH Zurich
architecture plan or photo
ETH Zurich
architecture plan or photo
ETH Zurich
architecture plan or photo
ETH Zurich
architecture plan or photo
ETH Zurich

Project Information

Type: Teaching at Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH Zurich
Status: Completed
Year: 2008

Credits

Lead Researchers

Silvan Oesterle

Team

Ralph Bärtschi, Michael Lyrenmann

Students

Michael Bühler, David Dalsass, Milena Isler, Roman Kallweit, Morten Krog, Ellen Leuenberger, Jonas Nauwelaertz de Agé, Jonathan Roider, Steffen Samberger, Chantal Thomet, Rafael Venetz, Nik Werenfels