Parallel Paths of Inquiry: Detailing for DFAB HOUSE

摘要

DFAB HOUSE; a multi-technology demonstrator of digital fabrication in architecture, integrates six full-scale novel construction technologies into a three-story residential building for the first time (Graser et al. 2020) (Figure 1). Rather than a mere showcase of individual digital fabrication technologies, it explores how their synthesis across interfaces can drive the process of architectural design. This account focuses on the co-development of its most interrelated subsystems: Spatial Timber Assemblies (Adel et al. 2018; Thoma et al. 2018) and the Lightweight Translucent Facade (DFAB HOUSE 2020). Each of the subsystems fulfills specific design objectives: the timber structure demonstrates cooperative robotic assembly and its degrees of freedom, and optimizes structural performance and material use; the facade combines thermal performance and daylighting, allows a non-planar geometry optimal for prestressing, and creates an outward perception of the timber frame. However, these two subsystems perform synergistically.