Architectural and structural qualities in timber joints: An Attempt to establish a methodology for early conceptual design studies

Design of joints in timber structures is crucial to reach both elegant and structural efficient designs. Design of joints should therefore be an integral part of the conceptual design phase. Traditionally this is not the case, and joints are often solely designed and analysed in the engineering design phase. The result is joints that function structurally but do not add value to the design, and may even compromise the architectural ideas. With an approach, integrating both structural and architectural design from the beginning, one should not only gain better structures and architecture but also increase timbers competitiveness in the building industry.
The paper is part of an ongoing research project aiming at providing tools for an integrated design process for timber structures. The focus of the paper is to identify how structure and its joints contributes to architecture and vice versa.
Further, a method for how to design with structure and joints from the very early stage of design is proposed. The architectural/engineering model of the joints will later be incorporated in the digital design environment of the designer. In this way, the conceptual design phase will not only include the structural elements but also their joints.