Quasi-Square Timber Co-development
- #Design Build
- #Furniture / Product
- Client
- Digital Design Lab (DDL), Nikken Sekkei Ltd.
- Year
- 2025 (2025.05 - 2025.11)
- Scope
- Co-development & Fabrication
- Area
- VUILD Ebina Factory, Ebina, Kanagawa, Japan
- Specifications
- Quartered underutilized timber (C- and D-grade logs)
Overview
02 Process
Logs are split into quarters and reassembled with the pith facing outward, creating members that are rectangular in outline while keeping the log's natural character on the inside.
The aim was to combine practicality, limiting material loss while working within the same dimensional system as standard lumber, with the design quality of the natural wood surface. The results were exhibited at PYNT in Takebashi in November 2025.
丸太を四つ割りにし、芯を外側に向けて組み直すことで、外形は直方体でありながら内側に丸太の表情を残す部材とした。
材料ロスを抑えつつ規格材と同じ寸法体系で扱える実用性と、木肌の自然な表情という意匠性の両立を目指した。成果は2025年11月に竹橋のPYNTで展示した。
Following fieldwork in the forests and sawmills of Kawaba and Kanna in Gunma Prefecture, the team developed a scanning system that reads only the necessary parts of irregular timber and a dedicated jig that rotates the material 90 degrees at a time on a ShopBot. Toggle clamps position each log on its central axis, making it possible to machine about 80 quartered pieces and 40 logs in a single week. Nikken Sekkei DDL handled data management and detail design, while VUILD fed insights from the fabrication floor back into the design.
Fabrication took place at VUILD's Ebina factory from July to October 2025. This division of roles made rapid "digital × digital" trial and error possible.
群馬県川場村・神流町の森林と製材所でフィールドワークを行ったうえで、不定形材の必要な箇所だけを読み取るスキャンシステムと、ShopBot上で材を90度ずつ回転させて加工する専用治具を開発した。トグルクランプで丸太の中心軸を基準に位置決めし、1週間で四つ割り材約80本・丸太約40本を加工した。日建設計DDLがデータ管理とディテール設計を、VUILDが加工現場からのフィードバックを担った。
加工はVUILD海老名工場で、2025年7月から10月にかけて行った。両社の役割分担により、「デジタル×デジタル」による高速な試行錯誤を実現した。
Credit
Design
- Kotaro Senpuku Nikken Sekkei
- Satoshi Takeuchi Nikken Sekkei
- Tomonori Yamakawa VUILD
- Hajime Tokura VUILD
- Yuki Mizuno VUILD
Construction
- Kazuki Nagao VUILD
- Yoji Konishi VUILD
It’s okay if you haven’t decided what to create yet.
Across design, fabrication, and construction,
we design the very path to realization itself.
Please feel free to get in touch.
It’s okay if you haven’t decided what to create yet. Across design, fabrication, and construction, we design the very path to realization itself. Please feel free to get in touch.
何をつくるか、まだ決まっていなくても構いません。設計、製造、施工を横断し、「実現の道筋」 そのものを設計します。ぜひ、お気軽にお問い合わせください。