With billions of tons of unused wood waste, the WoodenWood project, developed by Arch. Avraham Cohen, Yuval Berger, Alon Nisan, Yoav Dabas, and D.DLAB director Arch. Shany Barath, explores the potential for design to take responsibility in the development of circular solutions for wood products and processes. The project incorporates traditional modular woodworking expressions with robotic printing of an all-natural wood paste for the prototyping of seating elements. The printing toolpath creates a new ‘wood-textile’ resembling a rattan texture, while using an inferior material, sawdust. The raw wood structure serves as the mold for the printing process, avoiding additional waste through by-products. Together, traditional and digital design present a circular expression for wood waste towards a new end of life.

The project was exhibited in Milan Design Week 2023, earning a mention as one of 12 projects in the sustainability category by Fuorisalone. Furthermore, the Design Educates Awards 2023 jury selected the project for a gold prize in universal design, and the team as the emerging designers of the competition.

The WoodenWood Process

Wood is one of the most common building and industrial materials, and it is portrayed as a “natural” resource. Despite its potential for reuse, renewal, and biodegradability, the wood chain today is far from circular, with millions of tons of wood waste generated annually.

D.DLAB's target is to create a continuous lifecycle for wood by introducing a new approach to designing with waste materials. The WoodenWood project is a case study, a proof of concept. Its essence and main objective is to encourage a blending of traditional and advanced fabrication methods to combine into a workflow towards zero waste design.

The project addresses this challenge by developing design methods in which traditional and digital craft are integrated to convert wood waste, in the form of raw wood and sawdust, towards a new end of life. Emerging from the tradition of fine woodworking, the process combines the common expression of wood as a modular component to include the deposition of wood weaving through robotic printing in order to prototype the WoodenWood seating elements.

The wood paste prepared for printing is derived from Daika, sawdust with cellulose-based natural binders to enable 100% biodegradability. A parametric model and manufacturing workflow are developed to correlate between the chair geometry, robotic toolpath, and material properties. Outputs are examined in relation to strength, elongation, visual expression, and geometrical compatibility to customize human comfort. Through this process, numerous possible designs can be explored to create a ‘one of a kind’ chair within a mass production workflow. While the solid raw wood supports the structure of the chair, the printed sawdust completes the weaved back and seat. The two lifecycles of raw wood and sawdust are combined through the fabrication of the WoodenWood chair, demonstrating a circular design expression of wood towards zero waste.