ABSTRACT
Integrative design methods enable architects and engineers to collaborate on projects from an early design stage on, enabling the synthesis of material characteristics, structural performance, and manufacturing. Engineers have always considered wood to be one of the most complex building materials. The potentials of applying material characteristics has become increasingly challenging during the shift from craft-based to industrial fabrication of building elements. Innovations in both fabrication and material technology made it easier to work with wood and to reduce labour costs, but they did not encourage the use of the material according to its characteristics as a naturally grown tissue. Owing to new computational design strategies, hybrid structural systems can be calculated relatively fast, resulting in a higher level of efficiency and adaptability. An auto-manufacturer works top-down from first the concept then to the final product, combining the roles of designer, engineer, manufacturer and contractor.
