Branching inventory: Democratized fabrication of available stock

Abstract

Branching inventory is a construction methodology demonstrated through a full-scale structural prototype that reduces the waste inherent in milling lumber and celebrates natural variation by making complex form the efficient result of irregular material. The processing of wood into standardized components embeds waste and intensive energy consumption into timber construction. This work reimagines the utility of raw materials, using computational feedback to place natural form in dialogue with design intent - creating a dialogue between technology, material, and designer. A custom workflow synthesizes a network of branches into a specific, structural form, shaped by the thicknesses and curvatures of the stock material as well as design input. Building on work using machine visioning in fabricating non-standard timber by others - most of which relies on elaborate and cost-prohibitive 3D scanning and robotic fabrication systems - branching inventory demonstrates a low-fidelity, democratized version of such approaches, using standard wood and metal-working tools and in which the available material stock contributes to design possibilities.