Advanced geometry services

Free Form timber structure in a sunflower design.

We offer our skill and experience as a standalone consultancy service. Offering engineering, design, visualisation and planning for your advanced geometry project.

We have completed a number of large, complex and challenging Free Form timber projects, ranging from the Swatch Headquarters in Biel designed by Shigeru Ban, featuring 4,600 parts, to the more recently completed Cambridge Mosque in England, which features a stunning array of vaulted lattice trees and has received a total of 20 architectural and construction awards to date.

With each of these projects, we face new challenges in engineering, design, modelling and manufacture. But we learn something every time, and we take this growing knowledge base with us to the next project.

Our expertise is also not limited to wood. Throughout our history, we have also combined wood with steel and concrete, and have regularly designed and manufactured custom steel components to complement our timber structures.

Therefore, and in keeping with our desire for new challenges, we are pleased to offer our design and expertise for any materials you might be looking to use.

«Simplifying complexity – that’s it!»

Ursula Frick, Head of Advanced Geometry

Ursula Frick

Head of Geometry and Parametric Planning | Timber Construction

+41 71 388 52 52
ursula.frick@blumer-lehmann.com

Examples of problems we like to solve and services we can offer you:

3D modelling
Parametric modelling
Design configurators
Custom digital tools
Complete design
Design & Timber engineering
Geometry Optimisation
Machine data / Production drawings
Consulting partner
Training
Fabrication
Installation

Helping to deliver your complex design

One of the most effective ways to prove the viability of a design is to make a 1:1 full-scale model of at least a portion of the final structure. This is hugely useful for identifying if connecting details function as intended and for identifying problems that are missed when viewed only through a computer screen. While a computer and 3D model make it possible to analyse a design from any and all angles, it is still much easier to identify potential issues with a physical specimen.

Combining out digital skills with the tacit knowledge of our carpenters and joiners, we can make detailed and accurate prototypes to prove and develop a design.

The parametric model of the Cambridge Mosque with connections and interfaces, in white and orange

Experience with demanding forms

One of the most crucial elements when it comes to delivering a successful project is a high-quality CAD file or 3D geometry.

Designing and developing Free Form structures quickly puts the skills of designers to the test. While it can be easy to produce a 3D model that represents the design intent, it is much harder to produce a 3D model that is of sufficient quality that means it can be used to develop details and generate machine data. To generate the machine data for 5-axis CNC machining, we work to an accuracy of 0.000001 mm.

Grappling to produce geometry of this quality is challenging, especially for those without the experience required. So, this is normally the starting point of our work: remodelling the supplied geometry so that it is clean and suitable for the steps and processes which are derived from it.

We love 3D challenges

While we normally tend to receive a design on which to base our work, we can also create designs in-house entirely from scratch. The members of the Blumer Lehmann Advanced Geometry team all have fundamental training in architecture and go on to develop more specialised skills relating to geometry and parametric design. This background means that we are designers ourselves, and we enjoy the opportunity to propose our own original concepts.

Interview

Realisation of complex buildings through parametric planning

Ursula Frick, Head of Geometry and Parametric Planning, explains what it means to model and program geometries and to set up a system of rules through functions or construction principles.

Click here to read the interview

Don’t know where to begin or want to know more about how we can help?

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