This semester the CCA Digital Craft Lab Advance Architecture Studio explored novel computational design techniques and fabrication methodologies for creating structures made out of bamboo. While we embraced non-standard design processes and experimental techniques, we also examined ways to ensure our construction efforts were efficient, repeatable and sustainable. Bamboo, one the most versatile and extraordinary biomaterials in existence, was our focus.
Phase Two challenged students to work collaboratively in groups of four to design, prototype and build a small “Bamboo Tea Pavilion”. Students were challenged to harvest, process and fabricate their own bamboo canes sourced from a local San Francisco grove. Additionally, experiments in advanced 3d printing, robotic heat bending and AR construction methods were explored. The results are currently exhibited in the Digital Craft Lab and the Perry Family Maker Yard.
Phase One of the semester tasked students with designing a computational “Tea House of 100-Chopsticks” utilizing parametric modeling tools and 3d-printing to construct intricate scaled models. Phase Two explored relevant structural typologies such as domes, vaults and shell structures through computer modeling and physical modeling.
COMPUTATIONAL BAMBOO
SP. 2025 ADVANCED ARCHITECTURE STUDIO
Instructor: Prof. Jason Kelly Johnson
The studio was advised by structural engineer Felix Weber (RDH) formerly ARUP.