research topic(s): bending-active timber, robotic fabrication, elastic kinematics
material: tree logs, thread rods, structural steel, and hardware
location: Ithaca, NY
size: 35 sqft. - 36' tall
principal investigator(s): Leslie Lok, Director of the RUBI Lab
contributors: Sasa Zivkovic, Kurt Jordan, and Matthew T. Reiter
project manager: Lawson Spencer
research team: Alexander Htet Kyaw, Shihui Xu, and Yuxuan Xu
assembly team: Andreya Zvonar, Benjamin Ezquerra, Jordan Young, Cook Shaw, Sahil Adnan, and Maosen Xu
Ganodagan State Historic Site consultant: Michael Galban
funding provided by: Cornell Council of the Arts, the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, Cornell AAP College of Architecture, Art, and Planning
additional support: Tyler Williams, the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP) at Cornell University & the Cornell AAP shop team
journal article: { pdf }
additional links: { video }
cover image: Cynthia Kuo
aerial photo of the Unlog Tower on the Cornell Arts Quad | Cynthia Kuo
UnLog Tower promotes the use of hardwood trees devastated by the ongoing EAB epidemic in North America, reconsidering (1) notions of material standardization in timber, (2) material efficiency, and (3) fabrication workflows from raw materials to mass-customized wood products. Simultaneously, UnLog Tower provokes new methods of framing for timber construction, demonstrating that EAB-infested wood can be used to create a 36’ tall, lightweight, high-performing, and fully permitted bending-active structure. This bending-active structural system was developed through a series of geometric studies, computational protocols, and physical prototypes that contribute to ongoing research in the areas of robotic fabrication with natural log geometries, bending-active structural systems, deployable structures, minimum-waste fabrication, material circularity, and Mixed Reality (MR) applications for component assembly.
Integrating robotic fabrication and AR/MR fabrication protocols, UnLog Tower investigates how far a single log can be stretched – both literally as an assembly and figuratively as a resource. Synergistically, the project advocates for changes in resource acquisition and materials usage in the timber industry by demonstrating alternate models and workflows of construction from log to timber structure.
photo of stretched kerfed log panel | Cynthia Kuo
photo of irregular tree logs at splice connection | Cynthia Kuo
detail drawings of timber splice connection
aerial perspective of the Unlog Tower on the Cornell Arts Quad | Cynthia Kuo
aerial photo of the Unlog Tower | Cynthia Kuo
perspective of the Unlog Tower | Cynthia Kuo
foundation detail photo | Cynthia Kuo
foundation drawing