This year’s FreeLab was used to both teach students about a construction technique developed by Richard Kroeker, as well as a way to streamline the construction process and to investigate new ways of detailing some of the construction’s processes and elements.

The strategy, which borrows from traditional Mi’kmaq building techniques, uses green roundwood to build trusses which form both the building’s roof and the walls. The roundwood members tend to be much stronger because the trees are not milled, and hence the wood fibers are not cut. The method is also very efficient and can be done in a short period of time with virtually no heavy equipment.

As part of this FreeLab, the group developed a new way of bending the truss chords in the vertical plane rather than on a horizontal jig, allowing many trusses to be built simultaneously, rather than building them one at a time. We also investigated new connections, ideas for webbing and ways of detailing the truss connections at the floor and at the ridge line.