UNLOG stretches the limits of our architectural imagination – both literally and figuratively – toward a radically different building future that considers our planet’s finite resources and reimagines the role that architects play in developing new approaches to building construction and the built environment. In this Biomaterial future, new methods of making and new material practices are needed to address climate change as the most pressing problem of our generation. The Climate Crisis operates globally and locally, manifesting itself in various forms and formats ranging from carbon emissions and pollution to sea level rise, the loss of ecosystems, and the unprecedented extinction of species. Multiple narratives – ecological, technological, and architectural – unfold in HANNAH’s installation for the Biomaterial Building Exposition at the University of Virginia.

UNLOG asks the question: How far can a single log be stretched – both literally as an assembly and figuratively as a valuable resource? In total, UNLOG will be fabricated from 12 Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) infested logs with unique profiles, stretched to their limit and assembled on site at the UVA campus. The use of robotic fabrication and 3D scanning transforms dying trees into a valuable resource. The HANNAH team explored full log kerfing* strategies to robotically slice a log in an alternating pattern along its grain, and subsequently unravel the log into a zigzagging and operable assembly. The resulting logs unfold from line to surface, loosely referencing and reinterpreting the American tradition of wood framing. The zigzagging logs can be used to create braced structural assemblies and propose a new transportable and zero-waste construction method for lightweight timber structures. The 12 logs will be arranged into a spatial A-Frame structure, whose final shape and form will partially be determined by the available log geometries. The structure will be partially inhabitable and will reveal the unique wood grain and profile of each log. Using robotic equipment at the Cornell Material Practice Facility, and in collaboration with the Rural-Urban Building Innovation Laboratory (RUBI, directed by Leslie Lok) and the Robotic Construction Laboratory (RCL, directed by Sasa Zivkovic), the installation will be fabricated off-site in Ithaca, NY, transported to Charlottesville as “folded” logs, and unfolded on site.

Team

Leslie Lok

Assistant Professor, Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning

Director, Rural-Urban Building Innovation (RUBI) Lab

Co-Principal, HANNAH Office

Sasa Zivkovic

Assistant Professor, Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning

Director, Robotic Construction Laboratory (RCL)

Co-Principal, HANNAH Office

Collette Block

UVA Project Manager, Master of Architecture Candidate ’22

Lawson Spencer

HANNAH Project Manager

UVA Workshop Participants

Brandon Bonner, Joshua Cauthen, Abigail Hassell, Makaela-Ann Johansen, Dina Luo, Jacob McLaughlin

Special Acknowledgement

*The Full Log Kerfing method was first developed by Savannah Chasing Hawk in the Timber Villa Option Studio at Cornell University in 2017, co-taught by Sasa Zivkovic (Assistant Professor) and Christopher Battaglia (Teaching Associate). The project was subsequently refined in Savannah Chasing Hawk’s B.Arch Thesis called Timber: New Industrial Age (2017), advised by Assistant Professor Sasa Zivkovic and Professor Henry Richardson.