IBA Timber Prototype House: Digital Timber Construction System

Innovative Timber Construction

• 💡 The project introduces a new take on micro-architecture, effectively a log cabin turned on its side.
• 🚀 It combines the benefits of traditional low-cost timber construction with advances in computational design and fabrication technologies.
• 🎯 The system explores a novel solid timber building system to create environmentally sound, architecturally expressive, mono-material building envelopes.

Unique Structural Design

• 🧩 Solid timber elements are arranged as staggered upright frames, contrasting with the horizontal stacking of typical log construction.
• ✅ This vertical orientation allows for sawing thin slits as stress-relief cuts without compromising structural capacity.
• 🔒 These slits prevent the solid timber from splitting, ensuring dimensional stability and airtightness, which are significant issues in traditional log construction.

Enhanced Performance & Sustainability

• 🌡️ The slits are also utilized as dead-air chambers, reducing thermal conductivity and increasing the material's insulation values.
• 🌱 The resulting highly sustainable mono-material building system acts as structure, enclosure, and insulation, complying with stringent German energy saving standards.
• 🌳 Wood is highlighted as a crucial building material for climate protection, acting as a CO2 storage and having a significantly lower carbon footprint.

Digital Fabrication & Design Integration

• 🛠️ Digital fabrication is employed to produce high-precision, airtight joints for connecting timber elements without metal fasteners or adhesives.
• ✨ An integrated computational design and fabrication approach allows for gently twisting and curving walls and ceilings.
• 🤝 A single digital tool was developed to connect various stakeholders, including designers, architects, engineers, building physicists, and clients.

Architectural Experience & Regional Focus

• 🏡 The design maximizes the ratio between available space and envelope surface, intensifying the architectural experience of this unique micro-house.
• 🌲 The project proudly uses regionally sourced spruce wood from the Thüringerwald.
• 🇩🇪 It represents a blend of highly modern manufacturing and design techniques with locally anchored building materials, embodying the values of IBA Thüringen.