Embodied, Embedded, Emergent: New Digital Strategies for Cross Laminated Timber Fabrication and Use

Abstract

This thesis focuses on analyzing Cross Laminated Timber manufacture and use for the purpose of suggesting ways to enrich involved technology through the further application of digital fabrication techniques. Framed within the context of making and craft, product and processes are explored to search for opportunities where reevaluating current production methods may arise. It is also in this context that concepts of embodied/ embedded information and emergence are employed to suggest ideas for rethinking CLT, its fabrication and use. Based on research findings, new CLT panel types are prototyped and their required fabrication approaches proposed. The results are applied to a building design for a site in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.