ARC3020Y F
Instructor(s): Zachary Mollica
Meeting Section: L0109
Tuesday, 9:00am - 1:00pm, 2:00pm - 6:00pm

What is necessary is to make buildings with the lowest amount of energy ... all these fashions are complete nonsense ... just do what you have to ... it is very clear what is unsolved.”
–– Frei Otto

STUDIO METHOD

The @usingtrees studio pursues novel ways to make buildings with and from trees. Exploiting both new and old tools, we demonstrate an approach to working with wood that is unusual, ecological, nimble, and scalable. Process is our priority, and those joining will become adept at approaching materials as they are:
harnessing rather than creating complexity through their design work.

Using more wood in building is not simply better, and it is critical to acknowledge in setting out on this research path how negative the planetary impact of even our most sustainable constructions remain. Incremental change is not now enough.

In this studio, we care where our materials come from and the stories they carry. We develop ideas, designs and prototypes in response to specific tree species and their inherent material properties. For every action, we consider possible impacts on labour, health, economy, plant/animal neighbours, and more.

Thesis projects in Year 1 of the Using Trees studio focused on: materials and making, the design of discrete wood buildings, material inventories, developing tree specific 3D scanning technology, telling critical land and resource histories, and a lot more. In Year 2, we are excited to both carry further some of these paths, and to have new ideas thrown into the mix!

STUDIO CONTEXT

People and trees have a long history: we breathe thanks to the hard work of forests; nearly every major technological advancement has relied in some way on trees and the products we derive from them; and in architecture and building, wood has been a central material to cultures across the world. Despite ancient origins, it remains one of our most advanced materials, and as the one basic resource humans can renew, wood is essential as we build in the face of crises.

Concern must be raised though that we source ever-growing volumes of it from fewer tree species, to produce limited products, and in doing so skip a crucial fact: the kind of wood buildings we erect have a consequential impact on the form of the world’s forests. Despite wood’s sustainable reputation, an increasing separation between forestry, design and manufacturing has produced wood buildings and objects that contribute actively to the degradation of forest ecosystems.

Students joining Using Trees will explore unusual ways to work with trees. Guided by traditional knowledge and new processes such as 3D scanning, they will seek to develop alternative ways of building led by the found forms and properties of trees. The work will demonstrate ways better wood buildings can be made – with less material – to directly contribute to the growth of vibrant forest ecologies.

While most wood buildings feel ‘local,’ modern practices encourage the shipment of trees and derivative products around the world. By this and other energy-intensive acts, we undo much of the positive benefit that working with wood offers.

In contrast, Using Trees takes Toronto and its nearby suburban and rural regions as a standing material library. Our tall green neighbours clean the air we breathe, regulate heat and moisture, and provide countless ecosystem services to humans and non-humans alike. This must continue, but shouldn’t prevent examination of how the city’s trees might be put to better use than mulching at the end of life.

STUDIO STRUCTURE

Term 1 in the Using Trees studio is targeted at skill development. Completing two hands-on studio projects (Stoop and Tree Design), students will be introduced to a range of methods and tools for working with wood and trees – from chisels and handplanes, to photogrammetric 3D scanning and digital fabrication. You will learn to combine tools well, and by this to invent your own processes for projects ahead.

Readings, discussions and seminars in the term will cover how to structure a research project, how trees grow, the properties of wood, how wood buildings are and can be made and much more. Starting back in January, students undertake their research supported by weekly tutorials and regular reviews. Final deliverables of each project will vary in response to the precise subject matter chosen, but all are expected to demonstrate their research both physically and digitally.

// GROUP WORK – This year the studio brief encourages that thesis projects described below be undertaken in small groups (pairs likely). This is aimed at enabling ambitious material research projects to be developed within the thesis term’s constrained time frame. Groups will be able to receive increased weekly time with the studio instructor by sharing their tutorial allocation, while students will retain the opportunity to submit individual documentation and writing on the project. This will all be discussed and agreed collaboratively.

STUDIO TRAVEL

In Term 1 we will travel to Haliburton Forest for an intro to forestry practices. We’ll learn a bunch about trees, and bring some materials home for our second project. The trip is currently anticipated around October 23-25, and all students applying to the studio are asked to keep this period free. The studio will together decide on a trip/plans for Term 2 reading week, and along the way we may undertake day trips to locations in southern Ontario as a group or individuals.

STUDIO PROJECTS

1// STOOP (Ind) – Starting from a piece of found wooden furniture, students will document/describe and then re-imagine/produce a new artifact. The process will include drawing, 3D scanning, digital modelling and analog fabrication methods.

2// TREE DESIGN (Ind) – Working from found tree pieces or residues, each student will design and produce an ambitious building component. These works should be technique and process led, and are an opportunity to challenge the capability of familiar tools like the CNC when working with wood in a raw form.

3// THESIS PROPOSAL – Through Term 1, students will iteratively prepare a concise illustrated proposal for the research they intend to undertake in Term 2. These will be developed collaboratively with studio colleagues and your instructor during the course of Projects 1 + 2.

4// THESIS DEMONSTRATED – Term 2 will be taken up by our thesis research projects. These will vary in their exact structure/process in response to the identified area of focus, with lectures valuable to multiple projects added in to the term’s structure. Each student is expected to produce interim physical artifacts, vibrant 3D point cloud data, and to use film and animation as a tool for representation/documentation throughout.

STUDIO READING

Adhocism: The Case for Improvisation. Charles Jencks and Nathan Silver
BLDGBLOG. Geoff Manaugh
Cambio. Formafantasmaa
Designing the Forest and Other Mass Timber Futures. Lindsey Wikstrom
Empire, State & Building. Kiel Moe
Finding the Mother Tree. Suzanne Simard
How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built. Stewart Brand
Into the Woods: Harvard Design Magazine Issue No. 45
Material Reform: Building for a Post Carbon Future. Material Cultures
Modern Architecture: A Planetary Warming History. Hans Ibelings
Native Trees of Canada. Forestry Branch Canada
Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth. Buckminster Fuller
Shelter. Lloyd Kahn and Bob Easton
The Architecture of Trees. Cesare Leonardi and Franca Stagi
The Beauty of Everyday Things. Soetsu Yanagi
The Wood From Trees: The Use of Timber in Construction. Michael Ramage et al.
Tree Fork Truss: Geometric Strategies for Exploiting Inherent Material Form. Zachary Mollica and Martin Self