Parametrically Fabricated Joints: Creating a Digital Workflow

Timber joinery for furniture and architectural purpose has always been identified as a skill or craft. The craft is the demonstration of hand machined skill and precision which is passed down or developed through the iteration of creation and refined reflection. Using digital fabrication techniques provides new, typically unexplored ways of creating and designing joints. It is as if these limitations which bind the ratio of complexity and use are stretched. This means that these joints, from a technical standpoint, can be more advanced than historically hand-made joints as digital machines are not bound by the limitations of the human. The research investigated in this paper explores the ability to create sets of joints in a parametric environment that will be produced with CNC machines, thus redefining the idea of the joint through contemporary tools of creation and fabrication. The research also aims to provide a seamless, digital workflow from the flexible, parametric creation of the joint to the final physical fabrication of it. Traditional joints, more simple in shape and assembly, were first digitally created to ease the educational challenges of learning a computational workflow that entailed the creation and fabrication of geometrically programmed joints. Following the programming and manufacturing of these traditional joints, more advanced and complex joints were created as the understanding of the capabilities of the software and CNC machines developed. The more complex and varied joints were taken from a CAD virtual environment and tested on a 3-axis CNC machine and 3D printer. The transformation from the virtual environment to the physical highlighted areas that required further research and testing. The programmed joint was then refined using the feedback from the digital to physical process creating a more robust joint that was informed by reality.