Design method for roundwood construction using database of trees
In today’s shift from steel and concrete construction toward bio-based materials such as timber, reliance on forests for construction materials is growing. However, concerns are rising regarding the type and amount of wood our forests will produce in the future. Coniferous trees are expected to be less prevalent in the coming years. Therefore, we need construction techniques that can utilize more irregular trees with higher efficiency. One possible solution is roundwood construction, which makes the most efficient use of a tree’s wood but presents challenges, including the design methods. Roundwood architecture often requires knowledge of tree shapes early in the design process, yet a dedicated design tool for this purpose is currently lacking.
To address this gap, we propose a design method for roundwood construction that incorporates tree shape awareness using a database of scanned trees. Trees are scanned in the forest and their shape is stored in an object-oriented database, along with key metadata such as diameter, height, and centerline. Based on a 3d model’s intersections, trees are oriented in the structure, the bestfitting tree is allocated, and the residual errors are tracked.
We provide residual distance values for five simple structural cases along with the corresponding tree usage. Our results show that as the curvature of wireframe polylines increases, residual distances grow, which may require adjustments to the model.
Read the full publication here:
”Design method for roundwood construction using database of trees”
June 23, 2025 - This study is published in Structures and Architecture. Authors Damien Gilliard, Yves Weinand are associated to Focus Group C.
Figure: Section in the raw point cloud collected in the Jorat forest, VD, Switzerland
