Throughout the last two decades the timber building sector has experienced a steady growth in multi-storey construction. Although there has been a growing number of research focused on trends, benefits, and disadvantages in timber construction from various technical perspectives, so far there is no extensive literature on the trajectory of emerging architectural typologies. This paper presents an examination of architectural variety and spatial possibilities in current serial and modular multi-storey timber construction. It aims to draw a parallel between architectural characteristics and their relation to structural systems in timber. The research draws from a collection of 350 contemporary multi-storey timber building projects between 2000 and 2021. It consists of 300 built projects, 12 projects currently in construction, and 38 design proposals. The survey consists of quantitative and qualitative project data, as well as classification of the structural system, material, program, massing, and spatial organization of the projects. It then compares the different structural and design aspects to achieve a comprehensive overview of possibilities in timber construction. The outcome is an identification of the range of morphologies and a better understanding of the design space in current serial and modular multi-storey mass timber construction.

This paper presents the use of a computational design algorithm in combination with robotic fabrication and sensing to augment the design and construction process for non-standardized material. Although reusing reclaimed material can significantly reduce the environmental impact in building construction, current design processes are not set up for this shift in thinking. Contrary to conventional practices, designing within the constraints of available material means that geometry and topology cannot be fully pre-determined. This paper introduces a design methodology for corrugated shell structures from folded sheet metal of variable geometries and properties, in which the design goal adapts to available material. It follows a two-fold approach of digital algorithm development and scanning and physical prototyping for robotic fabrication. The scanned materials database is classified based on object geometry data and material properties; such as thickness, type of metal, and spring-back values for fabrication purposes. Together with a target surface, it is an input for a generative design algorithm consisting of surface generation and optimization. The surface generation tries to approximate the target through a translation of search algorithm results for object placement into a 2D mesh graph which is then linked to 3D particle spring based form-finding. The optimization consists of evaluation of structural, fabrication, and design criteria, with finally user selection. Robotic fabrication included object recognition, metal sheet folding and consideration of different metal spring back behavior. These methods were tested on a single curved arch surface and applied to a double curved cantilever canopy as a final demonstrator. The algorithm results showed a generation of different corrugated shell topologies based on iterated object placement. As a demonstrator, a part of the selected canopy was robotically fabricated from local industrial leftovers.

This paper discusses the architectural design potentials of a novel hollow timber slab building system for flexible and adaptive multi-storey timber building typologies. Current timber building systems are defined by their standardized nature, which limits most structures to unidirectional, rigid grids and limits designs to rectilinear layouts. At the same time, recent developments in computational design and digital fabrication open new possibilities to overcome these limitations. In this paper we present four building design applications of a new multi-directional slab building system that allows for a greater level of spatial flexibility and adaptability with free column placement and a tuned network of internal shear webs. These examples expand on previous work through the co-development of building design, skin, building system, and building service integration strategies for a long lifespan and changeable building program. The design applications illustrate open, reprogrammable floor plates that can support three different program states: office, residential, and mixed-use. Furthermore, the novel conceptual approaches to building service integration and the resulting slabs are compared to approaches more common in mass timber construction. Finally, we contextualize the study with related developments and discuss how computational and integrated design thinking could lead to a greater level of design freedom in timber construction and an increased applicability to more complex site conditions than in conventional mass timber construction.