FROM FILE TO FACTORY: Advanced manufacture of engineered wood elements : – Part 1: Innovative design solutions for multi-storey timber buildings throughout the entire building process – Part 2: Application to project Zembla in Kalmar, Sweden

“File-to-factory” processes of computer technologies is a contemporary way to both maximise efficiency throughout the building process, increase a building's performance, and be able to add interesting architectural possibilities throughout the design phase. Viewing the building as a parametric network of connected components that can be individually controlled through unique parameters may no longer be a novel architectural concept, but its application to multi-storey timber buildings is still a territory for which there are no maps. Allowing not only the notion of identicality in mechanically reproduced objects to be left behind, but replacing the idea of the object with that of the objectile, the authors investigate a novel approach that produces a set of building trajectories rather than a set of buildings, yet yields a series of buildable examples of those trajectories. This paper describes and evaluates how this series of stacked multi-storey timber buildings based on three Swedish timber structural systems can be both incorporated within a file-to-factory process, and how this gives rise to a range of new and interesting potentials to create innovative solutions throughout the entire design and manufacturing process.A “file-to-factory” process of computer technology is applied to a real project called Zembla in the town of Kalmar, Sweden. The ground datum is used as a counterpoint to the necessary further densification of our urban nodes. It redefines the notion of sprawl, turning it into a progressive tactics for linking the city fabric to rural areas. It is a post-sustainable file-to-factory-produced timber ground-scraper that redefines the urban-rural edge of Kalmar; soaring high above ground and water, suggesting a new way of life through a new way of making city-sized buildings for the future. A plug-in grid-shell structure is designed to contain a minimal amount of timber elements, beams make up the lattice, cross-laminated panels add structural support, surfaces (boards) come together to form the living capsules. Having the structure undulate across the topography and touching the ground in as few places as possible uses the dichotomy between landscape and urbanism to allow the project to reverse today’s migration patterns, bringing the city to the people living in less densified areas. The living units are placed in into the grid. Each unit is unique and is customised to its weather and topological conditions within the grid. Some comments on grid development and slotting is also given as part of the file-to-factory process