HoloWall: A Windbreak Wall Using Salvaged Timber with Mixed Reality Aided Construction

Abstract

HoloWall is a wall assembly installation that integrates mixed reality (MR) protocols with nonuniformly sized lumber to develop a customized hollow-core cross-laminated timber (HCCLT). Referencing traditional windbreak shelters in agricultural landscapes, the HoloWall is a repository of cultural traces for the emblematic and utilitarian windbreak walls that protect livestock and buildings. Constructed from locally sourced salvaged wood, the prototype sat loosely between trees in the Arts Quad at Cornell University to provide shelter from prevailing wind across the valley. The prototype develops a material language of lamination that peels away in calibrated gradients to generate structural and visual porosity.