This teaching project investigated the architectural potential of traditional craftsmen knowledge for today’s parametric design and digital fabrication techniques. Parametric systems usually allow change only within the boundaries of a predefined framework. Architecture and buildings never consist of one singular coherent system but always have to negotiate between different demands, construction techniques and materials. The classical opening of a wood wall stands exemplary for the borderline of different sub-systems – the lintel, the sill and the embrasure within the façade surface. Preindustrial timber designs were analyzed regarding their constructive performance in order to derive essential craftsman solutions that could be used as the basis for a simple but diverse opening algorithm.

The project was initiated and developed in the context of the elective course program of the Professorship for Architecture and Digital Fabrication at ETH Zurich: Prof. Gramazio, Prof. Kohler, Silvan Oesterle, Ralph Baertschi, Mike Lyrenmann