Deep Vision: Moving The Value Chain in Timber Construction

This chapter examines how new practices of digitisation in forestry and sawmilling can combine with advanced computational design and fabrication to challenge the way we understand timber as a resource for building. The chapter takes its point of departure in the renewed interest in timber construction as an active carbon sink, enabling new carbon-neutral building practices. By critically reflecting on the environmental consequences of timber construction and the silvicultural practice of growing and harvesting timber, we argue that existing practice cannot be seamlessly scaled up. What is needed are new practices that can rethink how resources are strategised and that interface with digital methods across the value chain to enable a broader range of timber qualities to be used effectively in construction. These ideas are examined in the RawLam research project, which prototypes the foundations of developing new design-integrated methods for interfacing Computed Tomography (CT) data taken from the sawmilling industry with intelligent digital modelling and robotic fabrication.