Housing prototypes, timber tectonic culture and the digital age

Abstract

Arguably the balloon frame exemplifies the commencement of the embedment of structural performance within timber construction standardisation and a system innovation responding to socio-technical issues in domestic construction. Three recent residential architecture prototypes which embrace digital design to fabrication are discussed as continuing this tradition. Held as exemplars of the capacity potential of digital design to file-to-factory these projects offer an opportunity to reflect on questions related to material culture, the social networks of construction and the boundaries between architecture, structure, materials, and construction. This chapter raises a series of discussion points centred around the role of timber-based products, in a digitally enabled domestic construction industry.