Digital Timber: From Freeform to Factory

SKY TIMBER™  MASS TIMBER ARCHITECTURE IN THE TROPICS LECTURE SERIES 7

Digital Timber: From Freeform to Factory

Speaker——
Dr. Russell Loveridge
Managing Director
NCCR Digital Fabrication
ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Date and Time——
8 April 2025
1700 to 1900

Venue——
Forum, 5th Floor SDE 4, Department of Architecture, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore

Convener——
A/P Shinya Okuda

BOA-SIA CPD Points: 2

Please register your interest here.

SkyTimber™ is a focal point of advanced designs and interdisciplinary research, thought leadership and education on tropical renewable architecture in the Southeast Asian region and the tropics worldwide. It brings together interdisciplinary groups of architects, researchers, industry partners, regulatory bodies to develop capability to design and build tropical renewable architecture in academic, professional, built environmental sectors – envisioning the symbiosis between sustainable forestry and built environment in the tropics.

Over the past decade investigations in Digital Fabrication have progressed from being “avant-guard” research into steady-state development field strongly present in both academics and industry. In this presentation Dr. Russell Loveridge will introduce the Swiss NCCR Digital Fabrication, present its history of highly interdisciplinary research innovation, and will discuss the next topics and focus for research in Architecture, Engineers and Construction. The presentation will focus on “Digital Timber” and will show how both the approaches and the tools used have changed over the past decade  – from early expressive sculptural works to the highly successful current engagements with local and international timber industries.  The presentation will feature projects developed at ETH Zurich in Switzerland which use open-source computational platforms and timber focused software to promote an increasingly integrated collaboration between designers and the CNC and robotic timber manufacturing sector.

About the Speaker
Russell Loveridge is Managing Director of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR)  in Digital Fabrication. He studied civil engineering and architecture, completed his professional degree in Toronto, his MAS Diploma in Architecture at the ETH Zurich, and obtained his doctorate at the EPF Lausanne Switzerland. He has worked professionally in construction and architecture but also has extensive experience academics and was previously the Research Director at the Laboratory for Architectural Production (LAPA). His research investigates advanced fabrication methods, smart materials, and novel construction techniques all with a specific interest on how these emerging technologies affect processes of sustainable design.
Since its inception in 2014 Russell has coordinated the NCCR’s multi-disciplinary team of over 120 researchers, engineers and technical staff, helping to develop one of the most advanced multi-disciplinary research consortium worldwide that focus on changing the way we design and build.