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Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering

Fabio Bianconi
Marco Filippucci Editors

Digital
Wood
Design
Innovative Techniques of
Representation in Architectural Design
Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering

Volume 24

Series editors
Marco di Prisco, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Sheng-Hong Chen, School of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering,
Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Ioannis Vayas, National Technical University of Athens, Zografou, Greece
Sanjay Kumar Shukla, School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup,
Perth, Australia
Giovanni Solari, University of Genoa, Genova, Italy
Anuj Sharma, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
Nagesh Kumar, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Chien Ming Wang, School of Civil Engineering, The University of Queensland,
St Lucia, QLD, Australia
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Fabio Bianconi Marco Filippucci
•

Editors

Digital Wood Design

Innovative Techniques of Representation
in Architectural Design

123
Editors
Fabio Bianconi Marco Filippucci
Department of Civil and Environmental Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering Engineering
University of Perugia University of Perugia
Perugia, Italy Perugia, Italy

Contributions are published under double blind review mode

ISSN 2366-2557 ISSN 2366-2565 (electronic)

Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering
ISBN 978-3-030-03675-1 ISBN 978-3-030-03676-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03676-8

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Contents

Part I Integrated Approach and Generative Design

WOOD, CAD AND AI: Digital Modelling as Place of Convergence
of Natural and Artificial Intelligent to Design Timber Architecture . . . . 3
Fabio Bianconi and Marco Filippucci
Beyond Form Definition: Material Informed Digital Fabrication
in Timber Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
David Correa, Oliver David Krieg and AnnaLisa Meyboom
New Workflows for Digital Timber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Tom Svilans, Martin Tamke, Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen,
Jonas Runberger, Kai Strehlke and Martin Antemann
Negotiated Materialization: Design Approaches Integrating Wood
Heterogeneity Through Advanced Robotic Fabrication . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Giulio Brugnaro, Angelo Figliola and Alexandre Dubor
Advanced Timber Concepts and the Design of Furniture
and Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Patrick Beale and Tristan Morgan
Lattice Shell Methodologies: Material Values, Digital Parameters . . . . 195
Mark Cabrinha, Dante Testolini and Ben Korman
Toward Mass Customized Architecture. Applying Principles of Mass
Customization While Designing Site-Specific, Customer-Inclusive
and Bespoke Timber Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
John Haddal Mork, Marcin Luczkowski, Bendik Manum
and Anders Rønnquist
Reciprocal Implications Between Design and Construction
Process of Timber Gridshell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Sergio Pone, Daniele Lancia and Davide Rando

v
vi Contents

Reinterpretation of Traditional Wood Structures with Digital

Design and Fabrication Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Philip F. Yuan and Hua Chai

Part II Centrality of Representation As a Synthesis Model

and Morphological Comprehension
Wood as an Essential Material in Architectural and Civil Engineering
Models from the Renaissance to the Architectural Avant-Garde . . . . . 285
José Antonio Franco Taboada
The Wooden Models of the Vatican Basilica by Antonio da Sangallo
and Michelangelo: Survey, Modelling and Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Carlo Bianchini, Alfonso Ippolito and Luca J. Senatore
Representing with Wood: Carlo Lucangeli and the Model
of the Flavian Amphitheatre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Graziano Mario Valenti, Cinzia Conti and Jessica Romor
The Teatro of Bologna as a Transformable Space: Drawing, Geometry
and Invention in the Study of the Wooden Model of the Theater
by Antonio Galli Bibiena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Giuseppe Amoruso
Learning by Prototyping: Wood Design Course Experience . . . . . . . . . 395
Mariano Chernicoff
Parametric Kerf Bending: Manufacturing Double Curvature
Surfaces for Wooden Furniture Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Mara Capone and Emanuela Lanzara
Digital Joinery for Hybrid Carpentry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
Shiran Magrisso and Amit Zoran
Geometric Patterns and the Art of Kundekari in Traditional
Turkish Woodworking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
E. Sibel (Onat) Hattap
Digital Wood Trusses. Geometry and Parameters/Fabrication
and Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
Andrea Giordano, Paolo Borin and Federico Panarotto
Digital Technologies for Cultural Heritage: 3D Representation
of Complex Wooden Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
Caterina Gottardi, Caterina Balletti, Simone Florian and Francesco Guerra
AHBIM for Wooden Built Heritage Conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
Stefano Brusaporci, Alessandro Luigini, Starlight Vattano,
Pamela Maiezza and Alessandra Tata
Contents vii

Shape and Design of Ancestral Fishing Machines Between

Geometry and Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547
Domenico D’Uva
3D Digital Systems for the Documentation and Representation
of the Wooden Heritage Between Finland and Russia: Survey
Methods and Procedures for Detailed Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565
Sara Porzilli and Stefano Bertocci
“Techos de Armaduras” in Cuban Colonial Architecture:
Cuban Coverings from XVII to XVIII Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595
Cristiana Bartolomei, Caterina Morganti and Giorgia Predari
The Caribbean Bahareque: From Living Branches to the Wall . . . . . . 623
Massimo Leserri and Dayan-Ariadna Guzman-Bejarano

Part III Connection Between Nature Lessons and Material

Explorations
Computational Mechanical Modelling of Wood—From
Microstructural Characteristics Over Wood-Based Products
to Advanced Timber Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639
Josef Füssl, Markus Lukacevic, Stefan Pillwein and Helmut Pottmann
Hygroscapes: Innovative Shape Shifting Façades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675
Sherif Abdelmohsen, Sigrid Adriaenssens, Stefano Gabriele, Luigi Olivieri
and Rana El-Dabaa
Adaptive Wooden Architecture. Designing a Wood Composite
with Shape-Memory Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703
Maryam Mansoori, Negar Kalantar, Terry Creasy and Zofia Rybkowski
Geometry-Induced System of Controlled Deformations. Application
in Self-organized Wooden Gridshell Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719
Efilena Baseta
Natural Complexity. An Introduction to Structural Design
with Tree Forks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
Lukas Allner and Daniela Kroehnert
Evaluation of Wooden Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761
Gülru Koca
Solid Wood and Wood Based Composites: The Challenge
of Sustainability Looking for a Short and Smart Supply Chain . . . . . . 783
M. Romagnoli, M. Fragiacomo, Antonio Brunori, M. Follesa
and G. Scarascia Mugnozza
viii Contents

Bamboo’s Bio-inspired Material Design Through Additive

Manufacturing Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 809
Francesco Buonamici, Yary Volpe, Rocco Furferi, Monica Carfagni,
Giovanni Signorini, Giacomo Goli, Lapo Governi
and Marco Fioravanti
Microtimber: The Development of a 3D Printed Composite Panel
Made from Waste Wood and Recycled Plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827
Sandra Karina Löschke, John Mai, Gwenaelle Proust
and Arianna Brambilla

Part IV Constructive Wisdom and Realization Challenges

Seeing a Tree as a Prerequisite to Timber Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . 851
Rizal Muslimin
Constructing Correctly in Wood: New Insights into Timber
Technology Approaches Through Purist and Liberalist Schools
of Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 871
Gabriel Tang and John Chilton
The Emergy of Digital Wood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 895
Chris Beorkrem
Housing Prototypes, Timber Tectonic Culture
and the Digital Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 911
Colabella Sofia and Gardiner Blair
Performative Architecture and Wooden Structures: Overview
on the Main Research Paths in Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 937
Angelo Figliola and Alessandra Battisti
Adaptive Timber Towers. An Evolutionary Prototype for the 21st
Century Skyscraper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 971
Alessandro Buffi and Gian Maria Angelini
Knowledge-Based Design in Industrialised House Building:
A Case-Study for Prefabricated Timber Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989
Graham Day, Eugenia Gasparri and Mathew Aitchison
(Re)construct with Wood, The Case Study of Amatrice’s
Prefabricated Bus Station Designed In BIM Environment . . . . . . . . . . 1017
Maria Grazia Cianci, Daniele Calisi, Francesca di Benedetto
and Matteo Molinari
Customizable Social Wooden Pavilions: A Workflow for the Energy,
Emergy and Perception Optimization in Perugia’s Parks . . . . . . . . . . . 1045
Marco Seccaroni and Giulia Pelliccia
Contents ix

Empathic Architecture: Digital Fabrication and Community

Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1063
Hiroto Kobayashi and Don O’Keefe
Non-orthogonal Light Timber Frame Design: Using Digital
Manufacturing Technologies to Facilitate Circular Economy
Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1087
Gerard Finch and Guy Marriage
Timber Plate Shell Structures: A Digital Resurgence
of Traditional Joining Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1117
Christopher Robeller
Computationally Derived Cross-Laminated Timber
Reinforcement and Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1135
Jefferson Ellinger, Chris Beorkrem and Calum Dodson
Beech Wood for Architectural Design: Three Studies Case
from an International Design Contest Terres de Hêtre® . . . . . . . . . . . 1151
Giuseppe Fallacara, Antonio Pantaleo and Giuseppe Scaltrito
Brise-Soleil House: Developing Software Tools to Enable
the Integration of Design and Fabrication in Timber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1183
Jonathan Nelson, Chris Knapp, Rory Spence and Joel Hutchines
Towards a 4.0 Mass Customized Wooden Housing
in the Mediterranean Area: The Ecodomus Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1201
Micaela Colella and Giuseppe Fallacara
HOUSE 1 Protostructure: Enhancement of Spatial Imagination
and Craftsmanship Between the Digital and the Analogical . . . . . . . . . 1229
Dieter Dietz, Dario Negueruela del Castillo, Agathe Mignon
and Julien Lafontaine Carboni

Part V Parametric Transfigurations and Morphological

Optimizations
KODAMA: A Polyhedron Sculpture in the Forest at Arte Sella . . . . . 1255
Kengo Kuma, Marco Imperadori, Marco Clozza, Toshiki Hirano,
Andrea Vanossi and Federica Brunone
Wooden Byobu. From Architectural Façade to Sculpture . . . . . . . . . . 1287
Atsushi Kitagawara, Marco Imperadori, Ryosuke Kuwabara,
Federica Brunone and Mayuko Matsukawa
Experimenting the Use of Wood in Contemporary Architecture:
Integrating Research into Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1317
Salvator-John A. Liotta
x Contents

Digital Design Thinking in Architectural Education Testing

Idea-Driven and Science-Driven Design Processes Towards
Researching Polymer/Wood Composite Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1355
Andrei Gheorghe
Digital Construction of Timber “Metabolism” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1395
Yasushi Ikeda
Parametric Modeling of a Wooden Folding Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1409
Tuğrul Yazar
Common-action Gardens: Performative and Parametric
Prototypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1421
Fulya Akipek
Algorithmic Craftsmanship For Bespoke Timber Architecture . . . . . . 1439
Sille Pihlak and Siim Tuksam
FracShell: From Fractal Surface to a Lattice Shell Structure . . . . . . . 1459
Iasef Md Rian
Developable Wooden Surfaces for Lightweight Architecture:
Bio-Dune Pavilion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1481
Andrés Martín-Pastor and Rodrigo García-Alvarado
SMALL IS MORE. Wooden Pavilion As a Path of Research . . . . . . . 1501
Marco Imperadori, Graziano Salvalai, Andrea Vanossi
and Federica Brunone
Introduction

Grandi invero sono le cose che in questo breve trattato io

propongo alla visione e alla contemplazione degli studiosi
della natura. Grandi, dico, sia per l’eccellenza della materia
per se stessa, sia per la novità loro non mai udita in tutti i
tempi trascorsi, sia anche per lo strumento, in virtù del quale
quelle cose medesime si sono rese manifeste al senso nostro.
In the present small treatise I set forth some matters of great
interest for all observers of natural phenomena to look at and
consider. They are of great interest, I think, both from their
intrinsic excellence, and from their absolute novelty, and also
on account of the instrument by the aid of which they have
been presented to my apprehension.
Galileo Galilei—Sidereus Nuncius (1610)

DWD

Digital Wood Design. Innovative Techniques of Representation in Architectural

Design intends to undertake the digital representation strategies that can change the
future of wooden architectures, through the combination of tradition and innova-
tion. Calling on anyone who intends to bring innovation and experience in wood
construction field, this volume is related to the advanced digital modeling with a
particular attention on the solutions associated with generative models and dynamic
value, inherent to the relation between knowing how to draw and how to build, a
relation that finds its foundation in geometry. Although wood is one of the oldest
construction materials, in recent years many innovations have affected the pro-
duction techniques and the design tools, and they have paved the way for new
formal, esthetic, and structural solutions, which can fill the application fields of this
material. Lightness and eco-compatibility of features make this material a valuable
alternative to materials that have characterized the recent architectural debate,
offering the ability to build with sustainable, fully renewable, and high-performance
materials in energy and structural aspects, capable of complying with architectural
solutions of great freedom. Thanks to the potential of computing, parametric design

xi
xii Introduction

and digital manufacturing are decisively contributing to renew a spinneret to look

forward in driving the future of construction.
The book is developed in the centrality of representation, starting from the lesson
of Marshall McLuhan about the correspondence between medium and message.
Representing corresponds to create a model, a condition marked by digital revo-
lution through the application of computational potentialities.
The new role of representation derived by digitalization is connected to the
techniques, but it is firstly a cultural question, an expression of the cultural passage
from a society of the image to a society of simulation. If maybe digital representation
is developed in correspondence of precision and replication necessity, if the com-
munication aspect promoted a valorization of tri-dimensional model, step by step, in
the predominance of morphological approach, the possibility to represent the
complexity of the reality has defined the role of digital design as fulcrum: On one
hand, it is becoming day after day the place where to converge different data, and on
the other hand, the medium to replicate the dynamical relation and the processes,
extending the question to time dimension. As in the digital era as in the prehistoric,
representation is the instrument useful to understand the world, to analyze and break
up the phenomena, and to prefigure future scenarios. Representation is a transdis-
ciplinary language, able to integrate specific technical language, by using the
abstraction of geometry to transform the analogy of the real in a simpler and
understandable discretized interpretation. It is so important to understand how these
tools are used to build the model, because in this interpretation it could be hidden a
reductive simplification or conceptual misunderstandings.
Wood represents a really contemporary material, rethought and transfigured by
design, always carrier of its natural essence, unable to forget the work of man and
the traditional lessons. Wood design is returning to have also in Europe a central
question, according also to its nature of renewable resource that can respond to the
energetic and climatic challenges. Digital studies are transforming wood production
and the workflows in the construction process, so that the distance between project
and realization is reducing more and more.
Digital wood design integrates different approaches, from the historical research
to the material analysis, the architectonical research of freedom. Different points of
view, the implicit need of interdisciplinary, support the explication of the hidden
relation is the basis of construction issues. But the particular approach of this
volume is connected to mark the centrality of the model and the value of digital
medium.
Drawing, model, and architecture are inseparable aspects of the same question.
Deepening the representative question helps to find the origin, the sense, and the
roots of our architectural aims.
Introduction xiii

Drawing as Model

Galileo Galilei is titled by Albert Einstein as the father of the modern science,
according to his introduction of the synthesis of model to the study of phenomena.
But Galileo found in the instrument, in his innovative tool, the fundamental help to
support his genius and his methodology. Medium is the message, as Marshall
McLuhan teaches us. This condition is really strong in our contemporary era,
characterized by a digital soul.
Digital wood design, a theme centered on innovation and digital tools, which
cannot forget the lesson of the history. The performance of instruments reduces
timing, which is dedicated to the reflections about essential questions and the aims of
architecture. We editors have the courage to promote this approach to digital wood
design not in virtue of the value of our innovative research, but because of the role of
Italian school in drawing studies, but also because the medium is useful to all. We
want to involve the tradition to help a critical vision of the future development.
The master of the past shows us contemporary lessons about the value of
drawing as model. In particular, Leon Battista Alberti, in 1485, starts his treatment
De re aedificatoria introducing the centrality of this field of research. It is necessary
to analyze the original Latin version because in some English texts it is often not
presented in a correct translation:
Tota res ædificatoria lineamentis et structura constituta est.
Lineamentorum tota vis et ratio consumitur, ut recta absolutaque habeatur via coaptandi
iungendique lineas et angulos, quibus ædificii facies comprehendatur atque concludatur.
Atqui est quidem, lineamenti munus et officium praecribere aedeficiis et partibus aedifi-
ciorum aptum locum et certum numerum dignumque modum et gratum ordinem, utiam tota
aedificii forma et figura ipsis in lineamentis conquiescat.
Neque habet lineamentum in se, ut materiam sequatur, sed est eiusmodi, ut eadem plurimis
in ædificiis esse lineamenta sentiamus, ubi una atque eadem in illis spectetur forma. Et
licebit integras formas præscribere animo et mente seclusa omni materia; quam rem
assequemur adnotando et præfiniendo angulos et lineas certa directione et connexione.
Hæc cum ita sint: erit ergo lineamentum certa constansque præscriptio concepta animo
facta lineis et angulis prectaque animo & ingenio erudito
Architecture is constituted by drawing and construction. The impact and the ratio of the
drawing lie in finding the correct and unique way of joining and fitting together those lines
and angles through which the building images are defined and understood. The function
and duty of the drawing consist then to assign to the buildings and to the parts that compose
them an appropriate place, an exact proportion, a convenient order, and a harmonious
arrangement, so that the whole form and figure of the building subsides in the drawing
itself. So, the drawing doesn’t have inside itself anything derived by matter; and that is why
we experience the same drawing in more buildings, where the visible form is just one. And
it will be possible to represent the integrated designs in our thought and imagination
entirely separate from matter, a condition that we understand by recording and presetting
angles and lines to defined directions and connections. This being so, the drawing will be a
defined and constant design, conceived in the mind, made by lines and angles, and carried
out by a person endowed with intelligence and culture.
xiv Introduction

The philological analysis of one of the most important architectonic treatises can
show us the full comprehension and anticipatory forecast that helps us to deeply
understand the sense of our research, especially in the digital age.
Lineamenta, drawing, modeling. The first reflection can be addressed to the
translation of the word “lineamenta”: Some English authors use the word “design”
or “lineaments,” but lineamanta is clearly connected to a system of lines, so as in
the first Italian translation the word used is “disegno,” now we can use the word
“drawing.” But inside this word, there is a deepening sense of these tools: Line, in
fact, is the first algorithm for primitive man; it defines the birth of culture, a magic
medium that transforms the void in form. Drawing is the system of lines, the
conscious use of this medium to understand the real. In this conception is forecast
our contemporary idea of generative modeling, composed by a link of simple
algorithm to define a digital path. Drawing is the modeling.
Architecture, drawing, modeling. Alberti shows us a series of considerations
about the value of drawing: “The architecture is constituted by the drawing and the
construction.” Drawing, as our digital models, is the constitution, the essence, and
the statute of architecture, which find its form in the construction, in the real
concretization. Alberti marks how architecture is an integrated process from the
virtual space of the idea to the defined form of the construction, these are two
structures composed together. But in Alberti’s theory, drawing and design are the
work of the architect, and construction is just a transcription of the idea. The model
is the space of generation, the place where it is possible to connect together the
elements. The main point of this sentence is the interpretation of a hybrid definition,
which is predominated by the virtual that defines the construction process.
Drawing code. About drawing, Alberti shows us as “tota vis et ratio,” its vitality,
its impact, its force, and its reason, but also the methods, “his way,” is not the role of a
simple tool or the results of a path, but it is an identification of relations and
instruction for architecture realization. In the words of the great theorist, drawing as
model is a net, defined by the connections of the designed forms multi-aspects.
Drawing is a system for the form-finding, aimed to have, after a path, after a hard
work in mind, the definition of elements and connections, a system that in virtuality
cannot be clearly verified. Drawing, in fact, is a scientific code, “correct and unique,”
absolute way of joining and fitting together lines and angles. Model and drawing are
both founded in the discretization of the elements: The digital logic is the expression
of man’s needs, but its goal is to return to the organicism of the architecture. These
relations are hidden in the form that expresses the complexity of architecture. Lines
and angles are the elements that configure the form of the building. In our digital
logic, it could be related respectively to the vector element and to the links between
them. Through these elements and these relations, through the construction of the
generative modeling, it is possible to obtain two different results: One is a defined
architecture, because the drawing is a scientific construction, and it is a two-way
function between the domain of the reality and the codomain of the ideas; the other,
marked by Alberti, shows a support process to understand, literally it takes together,
it transforms the multiplicity of perceptions and elements in a whole, the building
Introduction xv

images, not the form, but the results, the impact, the esthetic value, so that the value
of the drawing is found in the simulation function.
Drawing as language. Drawing is founded in a scientific language but, at the
same time, model is a cultural path. Alberti is a son of his time, and his words are full
of humanistic culture. His architectural theory finds a central reference in Vitruvius,
who, in De Architectura, writes that “proportion is a correspondence among mea-
sures of the members of an entire work, and of the whole to a certain part selected as
standard.” Drawing derives from measurement operations, in Latin mensura, from
metiri, which means to “distribute,” “divide.” Dividing up a space it involves
applying a rule, defining a relation; this is making architecture. From this, it results
the principles of symmetry. Without symmetry and proportion, there can be no
principles in design of any time; that is, if there is no precise relation between its
members, as in the case of those of a “well-shaped man” (Vitruvius, De Architectura,
III, 1, 1). He proposes “Six Principles of Design” as order (ordinatio), arrangement
(dispositio), proportion (eurythmia), symmetry (symmetria), propriety (decor), and
economy (distributio) (Vitruvius, De Architectura, I, 2, 1): Order consists in adapting
the right measure to single elements of the work; arrangement is their appropriate
collocation; eurythmy is the harmonic vision of the proportion between parts;
symmetry is the correspondence between each single part in the whole set; propriety
is the formal improvement; economy is the equilibrated administration of resources
and space (Vitruvius, De Architectura, II). Modeling as cultural language, as an
expression of a study of these relations, is not just a set of commands, it is not just a
procedure, but it is a path aimed to create architecture and its deeper esthetic value.
The virtuality of the drawing. Figuration recalls the concept of imaginary, the
interpretive action that gives a sense to the perceived form. This conceptualization,
that defines the real essence of modeling, is one of the central questions made by
Alberti, who marks in a different way, underlining the absence of materiality in this
differentiation between figure and form. Here is a reference in the value of vision,
so important in the construction of the model. Drawing is anyway an abstract
process, and in this, as a condition that defines the value itself of architecture, in its
connection with culture. Drawing defines itself in the virtual space of imagination,
in “animo et mente,” through the experience and feeling. There is a centrality of
virtual memory, so close to our digital approach, in the process of elaboration of
stimuli, in a centrality of the visual impact for the architectonic finalities.
Figure and form. Another central aspect introduced by Alberti is the distinction
between figure and form: The term “figure” derives from fingo, which means “to
give form,” with a mainly plastic connotation, so much that figolus is the potter. It is
distinguished from “form,” making clear etymologically the sense of “hold,” as it
testifies the correlation with the word “stop,” with which the linguistic root is in
common. If then “form” has a static sense of stabilizing and concretizing, “figure”
is tighter to dynamic, because form is defined as the arrest of a process. Figure is
also heuristic, abstracting from the visible matter through perception and through
reasoning form models, expression of the necessity of the eidetic-constructive
research for the comprehension of what is observed: It is in this context that is more
comprehensible because in geometry the figure is a set of points or lines or surfaces,
xvi Introduction

which present a whole construction. Both find their reason and their address “in
lineamentis conquiescat,” to stop itself, to find a quiet and a rest of mind process,
always dynamic and in exploration. In drawing, it is necessary to have choices, to
define logic, and to determinate univocal relations. Drawing is not an idea but the
concretization and the place of comprehension of the ideas, because, as written by
another great theorist of architecture, Giorgio Vasari, “il disegno è apparente
espressione e dichiarazione del concetto che si ha nell’animo, e di quello che altrui
si è nella mente immaginato e fabbricato nell’idea” (drawing is an apparent
expression and declaration of the concept that a person has in the soul, and of what
others have imagined in mind and built in the idea) (Vasari, Le vite, 1568, 11).
Drawing as generative modeling. Drawing is the set of rules and relations;
once it is frozen in the form, as a geometrical conceptualization, a triangle can
generate infinite forms, each one different from the others in terms of measure,
proportion, relations, etc. For this reason, “we experience the same drawing in more
buildings, where it is possible to define one and the same form”: Generative
drawing, the relation that defines modeling, is a reality with its own life. This
conceptualization is really close to our approach to digital design, in the mass
customization logic, in the replication of the design field of application. Centrality
of variation is another theme of the classicism, as Alberti remembers, in the same
book, when he writes: “Variety is always a most pleasing space, where distant
objects agree and conform with one another; but when it causes discord and dif-
ference between them, it is extremely disagreeable” (Alberti, 1485, I, IX). Ante
litteram, Alberti shows how parametric principles are the basis of architectural
theory, founded in the composition of this relations, showing how also in this field
difference is not diversity, in the unity of the model.
Integrated design. In the Latin text, Alberti defines the possibility of “integras
formas præscribere” that can be translated as “representing integrated designs.”
This interpretation is defined by the etymological sense of the word
“prae-scribere,” literally “writing before,” the signs made in a previous time,
connected to logic of “project,” throw forward, in the same sense of “re-present.”
“Integras formas” could be translated also as “defined solutions,” uniform and
complete forms, but the sense of this word is connected to the possibility of making
complex results. “Integras” is whole, full, derived by “integer,” in the sense of
making something complete. Integrated design is very close to our digital approach
where the distance between projects and construction is ever more reduced, also if
the project is separated from the material, and it finds his field of existence in the
virtuality of representation. In this context, for example, the actual condition of
wood design shows the breaking of the conditioning of material in form and
structure because wood itself is engineered. The real issue is the relation between
form, structure, and matter, which is understood in this text when the authors
connect the understanding process to the record and the presetting of geometrical
elements, interpreted as our concept of vectors and links. The integrated design is a
sort of second step; it is a complexification of the results when the model is stressed.
Introduction xvii

Hybridization as synthesis. To conclude his digression, Alberti proposes a

synthesis to describe all the aspects of drawing process: It is defined and constant
design, in this dialect between form and figure, between virtuality and reality,
marked also by the word constant, something that standing firm, invariable, and
uniform. Drawing is conceived in the mind, made by lines and angles, through
geometrical elements but also through their relations. In this sense, the model is
something hybrid, as asserted in the first sentence, connected to the construction, to
the interpretation of the complexity hidden in the architectural shapes, and to the
esthetic value of architecture. For this reason, drawing is reconnected to man, to his
author. In this humanism, the value of the drawing is not reduced to the tool, it is not
a simple machine, but it is “carried out by a person endowed with intelligence and
culture,” “animo & ingenio erudito,” a man with heart and mind, because drawing,
also in our digital world, always maintains its evocative purpose, using high-tech
solutions, in the deepen coordinates of architecture, which Alberti descript as “ad
vitam bene beateque agendam faciant,” building to have a better and happier life.
Starting from the origin and originality of the first architectural treatises, digital
wood design can find and redefine new models to innovate architecture.

The Structure of the Volume

The volume is composed of 61 chapters, written by 153 authors from 5 continents,

24 countries, and 69 centers of research (57 universities). These numbers witness
the international approach of the question, inedited integration of different schools
in the world.
In the value of integration and interdisciplinary, the richness of these variations
in the theme is organized in five parts that connect digital wood design to the
integrated approach and generative design, to the model synthesis and morpho-
logical comprehension, to nature lessons and material explorations, to constructive
wisdoms and realization challenges, and to parametric transfigurations and mor-
phological optimizations.
The first section concerns the integrated approach and the generative design
developed with different approaches by groups of research from all over the world.
The volume starts from our chapter (Bianconi, Filippucci) about the evolution of
digital representation in timber architecture, describing the activity of our group of
research in the balance between AI and NI and showing the researches applicative
developed founded in computational design. The section continues in the interna-
tional cooperation between Canada and Germany in the architectural language
through wooden prototype, in a critical approach to recent technical developments
in design, fabrication and material innovation and supported by a re-appropriation
of interdisciplinary teaching methods (Correa, Krieg, Meyboom). The theme of the
Danish Centre for IT and Architecture is new workflows for digital timber, which
explore how computation and a challenging of traditional material practice can
impact the use of timber in architectural design and fabrication (Svilans, Tamke,
xviii Introduction

Ramsgaard Thomsen, Runberger, Strehlke, Antemann). IAAC and at the Bartlett

School of Architecture show their collaboration in a series of project, case studies of
tolerance management in robotized fabrication with different kind of wood (Dubor,
Figliola, Brugnaro). The timber design across a variety of scales, from furniture to
structures, is the theme of the research activity developed by the Australian
Advanced Timber Concepts Research Centre (Beale, Morgan). The Californian
group of research describes Geodesic Lattice Shell Methodologies, hybrid approach
in modeling of these surfaces those combine an elegance of forms with the effi-
ciency of structure driven by the material constraints of straight lath members that
can be bent into shape (Cabrinha, Korman, Testolini). The NTNU Norwegian group
analyzes the mass customized architecture obtained through the application of
designing site-specific, customer-inclusive, and bespoke timber structures (Haddal
Mork, Luczkowski, Manum, Rønnquist). The gridshell.it research group linked to
Naples University describes reciprocal implications between design and construc-
tion process of timber gridshell, showing the development of a new information
technology design tool (Pone, Rando, Lancia). This part ends with the digital wood
researches of the Chinese Tongji University’s DDRC, centered in the relation
between traditional culture and innovation, a condition that involves also timber
architecture, in a digital design process based on the reinterpretation of traditional
wood structures that ends with fabrication technologies (Yuan, Chai).
The second part of the volume is based on the centrality of representation as a
synthesis model and morphological comprehension, deepening in lessons always
proposed by the cultural heritage and the value of drawing as knowledge instru-
ments. The section begins with an overview about the role of wood models from the
Renaissance to the architectural avant-garde as an alternative method to virtual
representations (Taboada). In connection here are reported three central case study
of the Wooden models of Vatican Basilica (Bianchini, Ippolito, Senatore), the
Coliseum (Valenti, Romor, Conti), and Bologna’s theater (Amoruso), paradigmat-
ical also if miniature architectures surveyed, represented, analyzed, and understood
by the support of the advanced digital tools. This part continues analyzing the use of
models and prototype in design practice (Chernicoff), the application of advanced
techniques as parametric kerf bending for double curvature surfaces for wooden
furniture design (Capone, Lanzara), and the integration of technique in digital
joinery for hybrid carpentry (Magrisso, Zoran). The connection between design and
wood is analyzed also in the study of cultural heritage, as in the case study of
geometric patterns in the traditional Turkish woodworking (Hattap). This part
continues reporting the research in architectural representation of wooden cultural
heritage, reporting at the beginning the Italian heritage documentation in the
application of HBIM in the Church of Eremitani at Padua (Giordano, Borin,
Panarotto), in Venetian complex wooden structures (Gottardi, Balletti, Guerra,
Florian), in South Tyrolean farm (Brusaporci, Luigini, Vattano, Maiezza, Tata), and
in the study of traditional fishing machines (D’Uva). The same Italian school is not
limited to local landscape, but it exports also to study Finnish and Russian heritage
(Bertocci, Porzilli), techos de armaduras in Cuban colonial (Morganti, Bartolomei,
Predari), and the Caribbean Bahareque in Colombia (Leserri, Guzman Bejarano).
Introduction xix

The third part describes the relation between nature lessons and material explo-
rations, in the value of digital design that involves also materiality. This part ana-
lyzes the mathematical interpretation inside the computational mechanical modeling
of wood, starting from microstructural characteristics over wood-based products to
advanced timber structures (Füssl, Lukacevic, Pillwein, Pottmann). The section
continues reporting research connected to the valorization of natural characteristic of
wood, as in the case of hygroscapes, understood as an Innovative Shape Shifting
Facades developed in an international cooperation between American University in
Cairo; Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport; Princeton
University; and the University of Roma Tre (Abdelmohsen, Adriaenssens, Gabriele,
Olivieri, El-Dabaa). In the same logic, the design of a Wood Composite with shape-
memory behavior is also connected to a responsive wooden architecture developed
in Texas (Mansoori, Kalantar, Creasy, Rybkowski). A similar approach is developed
in the exploitation of the physical response of wood, as in the innovation proposed in
a construction system to create scalable adaptive stiffness structures (Baseta) and in
the study of the conceptual joining linked to branch formations, (Allner, Kroehnert),
both the researches developed firstly in the University of Applied Arts of Vienna.
The study of the material increases in a detailed scale in the studies promoted in the
evaluation of mechanical properties of existing timber structures (Koca). Solid wood
and based wood composites and their potential of a short procurement chain of wood
represent the investigation of a national cooperation between Italian center of
research (Romagnoli, Scarascia Mugnozza, Fragiacomo, Follesa, Brunori). The
empirical research arrives to transfigure natural material, as reported in Bamboo’s
Bio-inspired Material Design Through Additive Manufacturing Technologies
developed in Florence University (Buonamici, Volpe, Furferi, Carfagni, Signorini,
Goli, Governi, Fioravanti). Also, on the other part of the world, in Australia, wood is
transformed into a 3D printed, gradient timber panel composed of forestry waste and
by-products (Löschke, Mai, Proust, Brambilla).
The fourth part concerns the constructive wisdom and realization challenges, by
analyzing the conceptualizations but also the paths to transform the research in
building. This section is opened by a shape grammar lessons derived from a tree saw as
a prerequisite to timber architecture (Muslimin). The second chapter presents a new
perspective for designers to work with timber in the twenty-first century, in the Nervi’s
request of “Constructing Correctly” in the values of the person places on material
understanding and constructional methods within specific context, analyzing also the
series of applications (Tang, Chilton). This part continues with an examination about
the emergent theme in digital wood design, exploring the ways in which researchers
have been exploring the use of technology to expand the use of wood while mini-
mizing the energetic impact of the construction (Beorkrem). Housing prototypes,
timber tectonic culture, and digital age are the theme of the following chapter, which
raises a series of discussion points centered on the role of timber-based products, in a
digitally enabled domestic construction industry (Colabella, Gardiner). Another two
overviews concern the main research paths in Europe, marking the research in
performance-based design, material culture and fabrication process (Figliola,
Battisti), and the wooden skyscrapers, connected to the design experience
xx Introduction

(Buffi, Angelini). This section continues analyzing the knowledge-based engineering

in timber construction, applied in industrialized building and data management by the
Australian group of research managing the complex and multidisciplinary nature of
design, fabrication, and installation (Day, Gasparri, Aitchison). The earthquake-proof
is one of the reasons for the application of this technology in territories afflicted by
earthquakes. The use of wood timber, designed in BIM environment, is descript in the
case study of Amatrice’s prefabricated bus station (Cianci, Calisi, Di Benedetto,
Molinari). The application of generative path is applied by the group of University of
Perugia (Seccaroni, Pelliccia) in the customizable social wooden pavilions, design
based on a workflow for the energy, emergy, and perception optimization in Perugia’s
parks. From Japan, an innovative methodology became the “Veneer House” project,
an empathic design founded in an agile technology applied in different solutions
(Kobayashi, O’Keefe). From New Zealand, it derived the proposal of an innovative
non-orthogonal assembly optimized light timber frame construction design, realized
by using digital manufacturing technologies (Finch, Marriage). From Germany,
another really important international case study regards the use of timber plate Shell
Structures, a historical technique of construction that becomes the inspiration for new
assembly methods according to the efficient realization that can now be achieved
through algorithmic geometry processing (Robeller). From USA, the proposal of a
computationally derived cross-laminated timber reinforcement and construction is
developed, a solution derived from the recent advances in computational analysis and
simulation (Ellinger, Beorkrem, Dodson). The application of the innovative tech-
nologies is applied also to the construction, as in the application of Beech wood for
architectural design, rewritten by a series of geometric and topological variations on
the theme of the wood-frame roof (Fallacara, Pantaleo, Scaltrito). Another really
interesting case study is developed in Papua Guinea, the Brise-Soleil House, a system
for seamlessly integrating design, fabrication, and assembly of a geometrically
complex timber veil (Nelson, Knapp, Spence, Hutchines). The successive case study
concerns the Italian Ecodomus project, a proposal that sees the mass customized
wooden housing in the Mediterranean area, a prototype created by an irregular
geometry made up of CLT panels and using digital fabrication technologies (Colella,
Fallacara). This section is concluded with the description of the HOUSE 1 as scaf-
folding and protostructure, experimentation of Wood Collaborative Design and
Construction in First Year Studio Teaching at EPFL (Dietz, Negueruela del Castillo,
Mignon, Lafontaine Carboni).
The last part regards the parametric transfigurations and morphological opti-
mizations, reporting firstly the case study of pavilions and installations from all over
the world, the spaces where it is possible to freely express and exalt digital wood
design. The section starts from the installation of KODOMA ideated by Kengo
Kuma in a context of international cooperation that sees the direction of Marco
Imperadori, installed in the Italian land art park Arte Sella, a polyhedron made only
by one wood section and connected without nails or screws (Kuma, Imperadori,
Hirano, Clozza, Vanossi, Brunone). In collaboration with the same Italian group,
Atsushi Kitagawara shares his installation Byobu, a reinterpretation of the really
famous EXPO Milano 2015 Japanese Pavilion, a naked structure defined by only
Introduction xxi

one element, conceived with studs, connected without any screws or nails, thanks to
the “compressive-tension” effect, whose concept interprets old Japanese
wooden-based techniques of constructions and even handcrafts of complex wooden
toys (Kitagawara, Imperadori, Kuwabara, Brunone, Matsukawa). The other chapter
reports at the same time wooden temporary architecture and constructions realized in
Japan, Italy, and France, developed through digital fabrication and controlled by
generative design, as an expression of the translation of the research into a real
high-quality architecture (Liotta). In the integration of idea-driven and
science-driven design process, a series of full expressive wooden pavilions witness
the combination between digital architectural design processes and digital design
fabrication technology, and it combines digital learning chain (Gheorghe). From
Japan, in a reinterpretation of metabolism in front of digital contamination, here is
reported the research experiences in digital wood design, showing its impact on
modularity, adaptability, compatibility, and transformability of architectural ele-
ments, in the paradigm shift of architectural design and technology between mass
production and smart production (Ikeda). Two experiences from Turkey show a
wooden folding structure, the A-Chord, a design family of non-standard wooden
structures, light-weight, portable (Yazar), and re-usable, and the common action
garden, expression of the integration between digital design and fabrication tech-
nologies with sustainable landscape issues (Akipek). From the Estonian Academy of
Arts, starting from local wooden house manufacturers, the architectonic research
shows in the installations the results of a young and vibrant digital design integrated
into a smart fabrication process, a way to return to a craftsmanship affordable for a
wider public (Tuksam, Pihlak). “FracShell” is a computational morphogenesis
project, based on the transformation of fractal geometry (Takagi–Landsberg’s fractal
surface) into a lattice shell structure, a demonstration of the easy manual construction
of a complex digital design taking the advantage of the rule-based shape but also
of the versatility of wood in transforming the complex digital design into its
real-scale physical structure (Rian). Within the broad context of teaching and
research, Bio-Dune Pavilion is the results of a project that involves a pavilion based
on developable wooden surfaces, parametric design, and digital fabrication, which
are presented in collaboration between Ibero-American universities; the project is
addressed to applications of wood to architecture through the CNC cutting of plates,
thanks to the properties of developable surface (Martín-Pastor, García-Alvarado).
The volume ends with the presentation of several shelters recently designed by the
Politecnico di Milano through high-level international cooperation, characterized all
by the smallness, a digital codesign that demonstrates the centrality of parametric
modeling and of the materiality, in the great potential of wood as a construction
material, according to the Vitruvian terms of structures, functions, and esthetics
(Imperadori, Salvalai, Vanossi, Brunone).
 Part I
Integrated Approach
and Generative Design
WOOD, CAD AND AI: Digital Modelling
as Place of Convergence of Natural
and Artificial Intelligent to Design
Timber Architecture

Fabio Bianconi and Marco Filippucci

Abstract The contemporary development and digital culture in architecture, from

the idea to the realization, lead to a rewriting of the coordinates of the deep relation
between model and pre-figuration, especially in the timber structure field. Artifi-
cial intelligence opened new potentialities that rewrite the project paths through the
evaluation of computational design, with a model set as the place of simulation
and experimentation, in order to locate solutions for more and more high requests
made by architecture. Wood’s natural intelligence inspires artificial intelligence’s
principles, and it is projected as the new frontier of the research, in its possibility of
defying optimized solutions also in function of multiples objectives and parameters.
Wooden architecture design correlated to a history of tradition, which is established
on descriptive geometry, finds today multiple application fields for the research. In
this sense, representation supports the knowledge and the innovation, able to con-
tinue and express its operative aspect full of culture and, at the same time, its tecné
sense, which etymologically it is meant as art and technique. The present chapter
shows different ways to apply the contemporary principle of descriptive geometry
in digital wood design research, in a multidisciplinary and contaminated learning
environment. In all the illustrated cases, the generative design has a central role,
in an integration addressed to the need of optimization of architectural form, using
Genetic algorithms in order to analyze and to understand the relationship between
form, geometry, and construction.

Keywords Representation · Generative design · Artificial Intelligent

F. Bianconi · M. Filippucci (B)

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Study of Perugia, Perugia,
Italy
e-mail: marco.filippucci@unipg.it
F. Bianconi
e-mail: fabio.bianconi@unipg.it

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 3

F. Bianconi and M. Filippucci (eds.), Digital Wood Design, Lecture Notes in Civil
Engineering 24, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03676-8_1
4 F. Bianconi and M. Filippucci

1 Introduction

The new paradigm of digital tectonics is developing the coincidence between geomet-
ric representations of structuring and the program to modulate them (Oxman 2006,
pp. 229–266; Oxman and Oxman 2010b). In architectural representation, the model
allows to analyse and simulate according to the behaviours of structures and mate-
rials with the energetic performances of the analysed buildings (Brown and Mueller
2016). For example, the innovation of Building Information Model (Eastman 2011)
has to be considered firstly connected to the management of Big Data, to the pos-
sibility of replicating in virtual field the immaterial implications of the form. These
conditions tell us how CAD is orienting to Computational Design for Architecture,
and how now here it is changing the design process (Menges and Ahlquist 2011).
The theme of simulation (Baudrillard 1981) is the centre point of the actual devel-
opment of digital representation, which is connected to the theme of augmented real-
ity and the actual trend to replicate in a three-dimensional simulacrum the form that,
until now, was expressed in the planarity of the image.
Simulation is also related to the themes of prototyping (Chen and Sass 2017;
Larry Sass and Oxman 2006) manufacturing (Kolarevic 2004; Kolarevic and Klinger
2008) and fabrication (Austern et al. 2018; Corser 2010; Krieg et al. 2014; Sakamoto
and Ferré 2008; Sheil 2005), with a 3D printing (Correa et al. 2015; Le Duigou
et al. 2016), CAD/CAM system (Chaszar and Glymph 2010; Lawrence Sass 2012;
Lawrence Sass and Botha 2006) and robotics (Eversmann et al. 2017; Gramazio and
Kohler 2014; McGee and Ponce de León 2014; Menges 2012, 2013; Menges et al.
2017b), it developed according to the possibility of new tools to deconstruct the forms
for the constructive process. In this sense, if “architecture continually informs and is
informed by its modes of representation and construction, perhaps never more so than
now, when digital media and emerging technologies are rapidly expanding what we
conceived to be formally, spatially and materially possible” (Iwamoto 2009, p. 4). We
are living in a cultural revolution, because “fabrication is not a modelling technique,
but a revolution in the making of architecture” (Oxman and Oxman 2010a, p. 24).
Digital representation is ever more characterized by an hybridization between reality
and virtual, in the simulation that defines also the physical result of the architecture.
The digital representation is ever more characterized by a hybridization between
reality and virtual, in the simulation that defines also the physical result of the archi-
tecture.
Anyway, it is possible to replicate aspects connected not only to the morphologi-
cal aspects, or organized by the constructive workflow, it includes the form-finding
approach to functions like energy consumption or structural deformations also related
to the form (Adriaenssens et al. 2014; Menges 2012). The simulation firstly it opens
to interaction, as a new way to involve the user in the comprehension of architectural
implications in form and function (Greenough 1947).
This condition is strictly related to the revolution of parametric (Schumacher
2011). The extrapolation of logical connections in the construction of the form is
based on the individuation of relations and dependences (Jabi 2013), defining ranges
WOOD, CAD AND AI: Digital Modelling as Place … 5

Fig. 1 Digital wood: architectural survey and modelling of natural shapes of an olive tree

of the possible input data to determinate the options. The centrality of the model as
an organic system of relations, it defines the variation as a result, according to the
question that “difference is not diversity. Diversity is given, but difference is that by
which the given is given … Difference is not phenomenon but the noumenon closest
to the phenomenon” (Deleuze 1994, p. 222). For this reason, we think is more correct
to define this approach as a generative design, rather than parametric, in order to mark
the capacity of this modelling of discovering new forms.
In this sense, this methodology responds perfectly to the modern request, proposed
by the father of the descriptive geometry, Gaspard Monge, when he writes about its
objectives: “Le premier est de représenter avec exactitude, sur des dessins qui n’ont
que deux dimensions, les objets qui en ont trois, et qui sont susceptibles de définition
rigoureuse. … Le second objet de la géométrie descriptive est de déduire de la
description exacte des corps tout ce qui suit nécessairement de leurs formes et de
leurs positions respectives. Dans ce sens, c’est un moyen de rechercher la vérité;
elle offre des examples perpétuels du passage du connu à l’inconnu” (The first is
to represent with precision in drawings that have only two dimensions objects that
have three dimensions and that can be defined rigorously … The second objective
of the descriptive geometry is to deduce from the exact description of the bodies,
everything that is necessarily followed by their forms and their respective positions;
in this sense it is a means of seeking truth, as it offers perpetual examples of the
passage from what is known to what is unknown” (Monge 1789, p. 2) (Fig. 1).
The generative design, anyway is a two-dimensional drawing, defined by the
connections between simpler algorithms, it defines rigorously the form as any digital
path and it offers also the exact description of bodies, integrating also different
6 F. Bianconi and M. Filippucci

information. But the real question about generative essence is this “seeking truth”,
not as a path of passage from ignorance to wisdom, but from “what is known to what
is unknown”, a condition that operatively it is possible to test stressing the parameters
and their combinations.
In the construction of the system of relations and dependencies, the generative
design is a “representation of a representation”, a “square representation”, able to
amplify in an “exponential way” the passage form logic of model, linking geometry
and computer syntax (Filippucci 2012a). The deconstruction of elements, funda-
mental also for parameterization, together with the representation of connections
and structures it clarifies the mutual positions of algorithms. Digital revolution has
strengthened the requests of rigorous with its own syntactic alphabet, purely math-
ematical, able to procure synthetic elements and morphological patterns, a network
of nodes and connections that can be considered ideogrammatic morpheme of con-
temporary hypertext communication (Bianconi 2002, 2005). Generative modelling
becomes an instrument able to reinvigorate the union of the graphical representation
of space and digital space, a process that explains what a form is made of, and not
what kind of form it is. In representing a logical net, the parameterization of the ele-
ments is a consequence, an opportunity of digital descriptive text to regain possession
of its infinite potential and dynamic heuristic, analysis of a path, understanding sin-
gular elements of digital syntax. In this way, it is possible to have a “critical analysis
of digital representation’s performance”, as descriptive geometry discipline required
(Monge 1789).
Generative design, anyway, represents a spontaneous evolution of digital mod-
elling, aimed to make the most of its potential, valorising the capacity of computer
to simulate all the possible combination and to evaluate the solution for the best.
It represents a support and a response to the contemporary architectonical criteria
founded in the performances and defined by the organic system, which is oriented
to its formal definition (Hensel 2013; Oxman 2009; Turrin et al. 2011). Inside the
generative interpretation, here is in fact hidden an organic interpretation of the model
according to the “deep principles” of Nature (Petra Gruber and Jeronimidis 2012).
Natural Intelligence (NI), which is all the systems of control and not artifacts, but
rather is present in biology, is the font of inspiration for the architectonic research
(Goel et al. 2014; López et al. 2017; Vattam et al. 2007). Nature offers not forms
but processes to think about form (Oxman 2009) and it teaches how to create forms
(Barthel 1967; Bhushan 2009) in efficient structures (Knippers and Speck 2012;
Wester 2002) explaining how the roles of a design (Mattheck 1998; Mazzoleni 2013)
really is adaptive and optimized (Pawlyn 2011). NI defines the paradigms that could
be receipted not as “an ignorantly copy of the shapes” … but in the acknowledgement
“that biomimetics teaches that shape is the most important parameter of all” (Vincent
2009, p. 81), because at all levels it builds responsive and adaptive forms to conserve
material and energy resources through the use of modular components combined
with least-energy structural strategies (Pearce 1979).
The biological paradigm (Thompson 1917) becomes operative in digital repre-
sentation through the development of new technologies (Hensel et al. 2010). In this
centrality of biomimetic (Bar-Cohen 2016; Benyus 1997; Kuhlmann 2011; Lynn
WOOD, CAD AND AI: Digital Modelling as Place … 7

1999; Myers 2012; Pedersen Zari 2015) recent developments focus on multi-scale
models and the interplay of mechanical phenomena at various hierarchical levels
(Knippers et al. 2016), as it is shown in some architectural experimentation (Bechert
et al. 2016; Krieg et al. 2015). Beginning with Ingo Rechenberg, the first applica-
tion of the Genetic Algorithms to the aerodynamic wing design (Rechenberg 1965),
the computer research began to develop algorithms inspired by natural evolution
(Fogel et al. 1966) in order to generate solutions to problems that were too difficult
to tackle with other analytical methods (Floreano and Mattiussi 2009, p. 1), founded
in the cycle between analysis, selection, coupling, and coalescence steps that are
repeated until reaching the solution (Rutten 2013). The logic of this approach is
to find “Solutions with better fitness values that are more likely to survive and to
join the next generation in a genetic algorithm” (Medaglia 2007); the application of
Darwinism’s two fundamental contributions, to “move in the direction of a science
of multiplicities: the substitution of populations for types, and the substitution of
rates or differential relations for degrees (Deleuze and Guattari 1987, p. 48). Evo-
lutionary Algorithms, applying the biological principles of mutation, selection, and
inheritance, reinterpret the parametric system that becomes the genome, the field of
alternatives is the same of the population, and the architect’s design goal becomes
the fitness criteria. It is possible to define the genetic algorithm as a series of math-
ematical operations that transform individual objects of a given population into a
subsequent new population, by selecting a certain percentage of objects according
to fitness criteria. Anyway, genetic algorithms are instruments to solve constraint
satisfaction problem, typically solved by using a form of search, pertinent to the
process of building (Fig. 2).
Genetic algorithms are the expression of the use of Artificial Intelligence in digital
representation; they are innovating this field by introducing a no-handed drawing,
with no direct representation of the form, no direct use of the fundamental algo-
rithms of representation, points and lines (Bianconi et al. 2017a; Filippucci 2015).
The development of evolutionary strategies reinforces the horizon of a generative
modelling (Renner and Ekárt 2003) by supporting the definition of unthinkable and
performative solutions (Menges 2009). In this simulation, it is possible to exploit the
computational capabilities of digital tools and to explore the possible combinations,
not only one parameter at a time, with the goal of improving a single aspect of a
building (Jones 2009a), but, more of them simultaneously.
The development of evolutionary strategies for construction issues (Kicinger et al.
2005) finds new life thanks to the support offered by AI: environment can be con-
sidered as Active Agent of the design (Hensel 2010) and in the range of solutions
and in all possible combinations AI chooses and draws the solution with the best
fitness. The proposed parametricism is not connected only to a variation of geo-
metrical parameters to change the final shape, but also it can be derived from an
input not directly connected to the form. In fact, it is possible to consider external
environment as a font of possible input data (Hensel and Menges 2008; Woodbury
2010), by integrating also those derivable from Big Data (Couldry and Powell 2014)
or from the internet of things (i.e. in domotic, a form that can derive from an external
signal—temperature—which drives a form—the opening of a louvre) to support the
8 F. Bianconi and M. Filippucci

Fig. 2 Digital design: didactic generative modelling of Toyo Ito’s snail shell-shaped timber struc-
ture inspired by NI

decision-making. The frontiers of the computational design see the organization of

the information and the management of big data, which can become the input data to
generate solutions. The volume of activity per minute on the Internet is something
like 347,222 tweets written, 51,000 apps downloaded from the Apple app store, 300 h
of videos posted on YouTube, 4,166,667 Facebook “Like”, 110,040 calls made by
Skype, 17,336,111 photos “liked” on Instagram… (Iafrate 2018, pp. 45–46). Arti-
ficial Intelligence will learn ever more quickly with the increasing amounts of data
to “consume”. Computer really aids design, the intelligent machine codesigns archi-
tecture, because it finds solution and draws form without a direct representation, and
also because in the acquisition of external (and big) data, AI also does self-learning,
remembering experiences of past actions (Fig. 3).
Another random document with
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Ojeda and Pizarro, he was not altogether unfit to hold a Spanish
commission.
 CHAPTER XIV.
DIFFICULTIES AND DISCOURAGEMENTS.

[Æt. 59; 1495]

MARGARITE and Father Boyle, as has been mentioned, had

sailed for Spain while Columbus was absent on his cruise in search
of China. Arriving in Spain, they told a series of able and effective
falsehoods, judiciously seasoned with a little genuine truth. They
said it gave them the greatest pain to speak in disparaging terms of
their superior officer, but a stern sense of duty compelled them to
say that the misguided man was a liar and a scoundrel. All the
Admiral’s stories of fertile islands, rich gold-mines, delightful climate,
and amiable heathens clamoring for conversion, were without any
foundation. Hispaniola was a wretched, fever-stricken place, wholly
unfit for colonization. As for Columbus and his brother Bartholomew,
they were cruel tyrants, who required Spanish gentlemen to work
and made sick men get out of their beds, where they were
comparatively comfortable, in order to engage in ridiculous
expeditions after gold that never existed. Of the two, Don
Bartholomew was perhaps the more objectionable, which was
unfortunate, inasmuch as the Admiral, having put to sea in search of
more of his worthless islands, had undoubtedly been drowned.
It must be confessed that, in one respect, Margarite and Boyle
did tell the truth. There were chills and fever in the new colony, and
when the King and Queen saw the returned colonists visibly shaking
before them, they believed in the unhealthfulness of Hispaniola and
all the accompanying lies told by the malicious and malarious
complainants. They therefore resolved to send one Diego Carillo to
Hispaniola as an investigating committee, to ascertain if there was
anybody capable of telling the exact truth about the state of affairs.
 But before Carillo could sail, Don Diego Columbus arrived, and
as he brought considerable gold with him, the monarchs formed the
opinion that he had the air of a man of strict veracity. He admitted
that there was a part of the island of Hispaniola, a long distance from
the colony, where it was said that chills and fever prevailed, and he
was inclined to believe that the report was true. As for the climate of
Isabella and its vicinity, he regarded it as exceptionally healthful. He
reported that the Admiral had positively been to the mainland of
China, and regretted that he had thoughtlessly forgotten to bring
back confirmatory tea-chests.
Don Diego further assured the King and Queen that since the
fortunate departure from Hispaniola of two objectionable persons
whom he would not name, but who, he was informed, had recently
arrived in Spain with a full cargo of assorted falsehoods, the affairs
of the colony had been very prosperous. Of course, to bold and
restless spirits there was a certain monotony in swinging in
hammocks all day long, and eating delicious fruit, in a climate that
was really perfect, and there were men who even grew tired of
picking up nuggets of gold; but Don Diego was confident that, with a
very few exceptions, the colonists enjoyed their luxurious life and, on
the whole, preferred Hispaniola to Paradise.
Ferdinand and Isabella weighed the gold brought by Don Diego,
and decided to believe him. They thereupon cancelled Carillo’s
appointment, and appointed in his place Juan Aguado, a personal
friend of Columbus, who, it was understood, would go to Hispaniola
in the character of a visiting statesman, and, after examining such
witnesses as Columbus might introduce to him, would return home
and make a report that would completely satisfy the Admiral.
In spite of this apparently friendly action, they gave Columbus
just cause of complaint by throwing open the business of exploration,
the monopoly of which they had formally given to him. They
authorized any Spaniard to fit out exploring expeditions, under
certain restrictions, and to discover continents, islands, and seas,
without any limitation as to number; the discoverers to pay the
Crown one third of all the gold they might find. Columbus was greatly
grieved at this, not only because he feared that injudicious explorers
would discover unhealthy islands, and would thus bring exploration
into disrepute, but because it was a distinct breach of faith on the
part of the King and Queen. As for the gracious permission which
they gave him to freight a vessel to trade with the New World
whenever any other explorer should freight one for the like purpose,
he evidently did not trust himself to express his opinion of such a
hollow mockery of his rights.
In August, 1495, Don Juan Aguado sailed for Hispaniola with a
fleet loaded with supplies and a pocket filled with a royal decree,
written on the best of parchment and ordering that the colony of
Isabella should consist of not over five hundred people. The astute
monarchs had perceived that the larger the colony might be the
more numerous and contradictory would be the complaints which the
colonists would make, and hence they resolved to limit the
complaint-producing capacity of the colony, and to render it
impossible for more than five hundred distinct accounts of the infamy
of Columbus and the climate to be brought to their royal ears.
As Aguado was supposed to be a firm friend of the Admiral, Don
Diego Columbus decided to return with him to Isabella, which he
accordingly did, arriving some time in October. We can imagine how
glad Columbus must have been to find that his good though tedious
brother’s affection forbade him to desert his own dear Christopher.
The latter was in the interior when Aguado arrived, and that officer
immediately proceeded to astonish Don Bartholomew by putting on
what Bartholomew rightly characterized as airs. Aguado announced
that he had come to put things to rights, and that the colonists now
had a real friend to whom they could complain when insulted and
oppressed by domineering Italians. As Isabella was undoubtedly a
dull place, the colonists eagerly availed themselves of the new
occupation of making complaints against Columbus and his brother,
and displayed a promptness and industry of which they had never
before given any signs. Don Bartholomew instantly sent word to his
brother that a new and alarming kind of lunatic had arrived from
Spain, with a royal commission authorizing him to raise the great
adversary of mankind, and that the sooner the Admiral returned the
better.
 Columbus hastened to Isabella, where he greeted Aguado with
such overwhelming politeness that the fellow became wretchedly
unhappy. He had hoped to be able to report that Columbus had
insulted him and treated the royal commission with contempt, but he
was disappointed. He was a little cheered up, however, by a
tremendous hurricane which wrecked all the Spanish ships except
one, and kept the air for a time full of Spanish colonists, natives, and
fragments of ruined buildings. This he thought would read very well
in his intended report on the general infamy of the climate, and,
despairing of obtaining anything better, he resolved to return to
Spain as soon as a new vessel could be built. The Admiral
announced that he intended to return with him, a piece of news that
greatly discontented Aguado, who foresaw that after he had made
his report concerning Columbus the latter would be entirely capable
of making a report concerning Aguado.
[Æt. 60; 1496]

About this time a young Spaniard arrived from the interior with a
most welcome story. He had run away from Isabella on account of
having nearly killed a fellow-colonist, and had met a beautiful female
cacique living on the river Ozema, near the present site of San
Domingo, who had fallen violently in love with him. From her he had
learned of rich gold-mines, and he humbly trusted that Columbus
would condescend to look at them and to overlook his little
indiscretion in the matter of his fellow-colonist. The Admiral, secretly
feeling that any man who killed one of his colonists was a benefactor
of the human race, kindly forgave him and went with him to inspect
the mines, which he found to be apparently so rich that he instantly
overhauled his Old Testament and his Geography, and decided that
he had found the original land of Ophir.
A new scientific person, who had been sent out to supersede the
worthless Fermin Cedo, was ordered to take his crucibles, transit
instruments, and other apparatus, and make a satisfactory assay of
the mines. He did so, and, being a clever man, reported to the
Admiral that the gold was unusually genuine, and that the ore would
probably average three hundred dollars to the ton. At least, that is
what he would have reported had he been a modern expert
investigating mining property in behalf of British capitalists, and we
need not suppose that there were no able assayers prior to the
discovery of silver in Colorado. Columbus read the report, expressed
a high opinion of the scientific abilities of the assayer, and ordered a
fort to be built in the neighborhood of the mines.
Carrying with him specimens of gold from the new mines, and
the report of the scientific person, Columbus sailed for Spain, in
company with Aguado, on the 10th of March, 1496. He left Don
Bartholomew as Governor during his absence, and took with him the
captive chief Caonabo, either as a specimen of the kind of heathen
produced by the island, or because he thought it might be possible to
convert the chief with the help of the many appliances in the
possession of the church at home. He wisely refrained from taking
any slaves, Don Diego having informed him that the Queen had
ordered his previous consignment of five hundred to be sent back to
Hispaniola and set at liberty.
The homeward-bound fleet consisted of only two vessels, but
they met with as much head-wind as if they had been a dozen ships
of the largest size, and on the 10th of April they were compelled to
stop at Guadaloupe for water and provisions. Here they were
attacked by armed women as well as men. Several of these early
American advocates of the equality of the sexes were captured, and
set at liberty again when the ships sailed. One of them, however,
improved the time by falling in love with Caonabo, whom she insisted
upon accompanying, and Columbus consented to carry her to Spain
as a beautiful illustration of the affectionate character of the Western
heathen.
It was the 20th of April when the fleet left Guadaloupe, and
Cadiz was not reached until the 11th of June. The provisions were so
nearly exhausted that during the latter part of the voyage the sailors
were almost in a state of starvation. Of course, when the provisions
were scarce and the men were put on short allowance, the prisoner
Caonabo and his affectionate female friend received their share of
food, for Columbus would never have permitted the unfortunate pair
to starve. Still, it did happen that Caonabo died on the voyage, and
history is silent as to what became of his companion.
 [Æt. 60–62; 1496–98]

The returned colonists told dismal stories of their sufferings, but

their stories were superfluous. Their wretched appearance; the way
in which they clung to the lamp-posts and shook them till the glass
rattled; and the promptness with which they rushed into the drug-
stores and demanded—each for himself, in a single breath—“Six-
dozen-two-grain-quinine-pills-and-be-quick-about-it!” furnished
sufficient evidence of the sort of climate in which they had lived. It
was useless for Columbus and his friends to say that the
appearance and conduct of the shaking colonists were due to sea-
sickness and long confinement on shipboard without proper
provisions. The incredulous public of Cadiz could not be thus
imposed upon, and the visible facts as to the colonists offset in the
popular mind the magnificent stories of the mines of Ophir which the
Admiral circulated as soon as he landed. The monarchs sent him a
courteous invitation to visit the court, but he was in great doubt as to
the kind of reception which Margarite, Father Boyle, and Aguado
would prepare for him. In order to show that he felt himself greatly
humiliated by the credence which had been given to the reports
against him, he dressed himself in a Franciscan’s coarse gown, and
let his beard grow. On his way to court he paraded some thirty
Indians whom he had brought with him, dressed principally in gold
bracelets, and thereby created the false and alarming impression on
the public mind that the Black Crook had broken out with much
violence.
The King and Queen, when they saw the gold that Columbus
had brought, and read the scientific person’s certificates that it was
genuine, decided to disregard all the complaints against the Admiral.
Aguado had nothing to repay him for his long voyage, and no one
would listen to his report. It is believed that he finally published it as
an advertisement at so much a line in the local Cadiz paper, and
sent marked copies to all his friends. If so, he benefited no one but
the printers, and did Columbus no apparent injury.
[Æt. 60; 1496–98]

Columbus was promised eight ships for a third exploring

expedition, but the money was not in the treasury, or, at all events,
the King and Queen could not make up their minds to spare it. They
were engaged in two or three expensive wars and one or two difficult
marriages, and were really quite pinched for money. At last, however,
they gave Columbus an order for the amount; but before it was paid,
Pedro Alonzo Niño, who had been sent with supplies to Hispaniola,
returned to Cadiz and announced that his ships were filled with gold.
The monarchs therefore recalled their order, and in its stead gave
Columbus a draft on Niño, to be paid from his cargo of gold. Further
investigation showed that Niño had spoken figuratively, and that he
had no actual gold, but only a cargo of slaves, who, he estimated,
would bring more or less gold if sold in the market.
Meanwhile the monarchs had appropriated all their ready money
for purposes of slaughter and matrimony, and so were compelled to
decline advancing funds for the new expedition until their business
should improve.
Columbus had already lost much of his original popularity, and
was daily losing what remained. That he had discovered new
countries nobody denied; but the complaint was that he had selected
cheap and undesirable countries. The Queen, however, still admired
and trusted him, for the Admiral was a man of remarkably fine
personal appearance. She confirmed all the previous honors and
privileges that had been promised to him, which looks as if in those
days a royal promise became outlawed, as the lawyers say, in one or
two years unless it was renewed—a rule which must have greatly
simplified the practice of diplomacy. Inasmuch as there had been a
vast excess of expenses over receipts in the exploration business,
Columbus was released from the obligation to pay an eighth of the
cost of every expedition, and was given a large tract of land in
Hispaniola, with the title of Duke, which title he refused, since it was
inferior in rank to his title of Admiral.
[Æt. 62; 1498]

While waiting for the expedition to be made ready, Columbus

improved the time by making his will. In this document he committed
the task of recovering the Holy Sepulchre to his son Diego, and
directed him to save up his money by putting it in the savings bank,
until he should have enough to pay for a crusade. Curiously enough,
Don Diego never was able to accumulate the necessary sum, and
the Holy Sepulchre is still waiting to be delivered. It was wise,
however, in the Admiral to delegate this great duty to his son, and
thus to free himself from an obligation which could not but interfere
with the business of exploration. The more we can shift our burdens
upon our descendants, the better time we shall have. This is the
great principle upon which all enlightened nations base their financial
policy.
Early in 1498 the royal business had so far improved that two
vessels loaded with supplies were sent to Hispaniola, and
preparations were made for fitting out a fleet of six ships and a force
of five hundred men. The five hundred men were not easily found. It
was the popular belief that chills and fever were not worth the trouble
of so long a voyage, and that there was little else to be got by
serving under Columbus. In this emergency, the sentences of
criminals in the Spanish jails were commuted to transportation to the
New World, and a pardon was offered to all persons for whom the
police were looking—with the exception of heretics and a few other
choice criminals—who should surrender themselves and volunteer to
join the fleet. In this way the required number of men was gradually
obtained. In point of moral character the expedition might have
competed with an equal number of Malay pirates or New York
plumbers. We are even told that some hardened and habitual
musicians were thus carried by Columbus to the once peaceful and
happy island of Hispaniola, taking with them their accordions and
guitars. This is a blot upon the Admiral’s character which his most
ardent admirers cannot overlook.
 CHAPTER XV.
HIS THIRD EXPEDITION.

[Æt. 62; 1498]

THE perseverance of Columbus triumphed over all obstacles.

The expedition was finally ready, and on the 30th of May, 1498, the
Admiral went on board the flag-ship and, after remarking “All ashore
that’s goin’!” and “All aboard!” rang the final bell and started once
more for the New World. Just as he was about to embark, one
Breviesca, a clerk in the Indian Agents’ Bureau, met him on the
wharf and told Columbus that he would never return.
“What, never?” exclaimed the astonished Admiral.
“Well, hardly ever,” replied the miscreant.
Of course Columbus instantly knocked him down, and went on
board his vessel in a just but tremendous rage. He wrote to the
Queen, informing her of the affair, and sincerely regretting that he
had lost his temper. Long afterwards his enemies were accustomed
to refer to the brutal way in which he had attacked an estimable and
inoffensive gentleman, as a proof of his ungovernable temper, his
Italian fondness for revenge, and his general unfitness for any post
of responsibility.
The fleet steered first for Madeira, and then for the Canary
Islands, touching at both places; and at the latter surprising—as
historians assure us—a French privateer with two Spanish prizes.
What there was about Columbus or his fleet that was so surprising,
has, of course, been left to our imagination, in accordance with the
habit of historians to omit mentioning details of real interest. The
Frenchman was attacked by the Spaniards, but managed to escape
together with one of his prizes. The other prize was retaken by the
Spanish prisoners on board of her, and given up to Columbus, who
turned the vessel over to the local authorities.
From the Canaries the fleet sailed to the Cape Verde Islands,
where the Admiral divided his forces. Three ships he sent direct to
Hispaniola, and with the other three he steered in a south-westerly
direction, to make new discoveries. He soon discovered the hottest
region in which he had ever yet been—the great champion belt of
equatorial calms. There was not a breath of wind, and the very
seams of the ships opened with the intense heat. It was evident to
the sailors that they must be very close to the region where,
according to the scientific persons of the period, the sea was
perpetually boiling, and they began to fear that they would be
roasted before the boiling process could begin. Luckily, a gentle
breeze finally sprung up, and Columbus, abandoning the rash
attempt to sail farther south, steered directly west, and soon passed
into a comforting, cool, and pleasant climate.
On the 31st of July he discovered the island of Trinidad, and in
view of the fact that his ships were leaky, his water almost gone, and
his body alternately shaken by fever and twisted by gout, it was high
time that land should have been found.
The following day the flag-ship was suddenly attacked by a
canoe full of fierce natives, who threw spears and other unpleasant
things at the Spaniards, and fought with great bravery. Columbus,
determined to strike terror into the enemy, ordered his musicians to
assemble on deck and play familiar airs—probably from “Pinafore.”
The result surpassed his most sanguine expectations. The unhappy
natives fled in wild dismay as soon as the music began, and yelled
with anguish when the first cornet blew a staccato note, and the man
with the bass trombone played half a tone flat. When we remember
that the good Queen Isabella had particularly ordered Columbus to
treat the natives kindly, we must earnestly hope that this cruel
incident never came to her presumably pretty ears.
The fleet was now off the south shore of Trinidad, and the
mainland was in plain sight farther west. Columbus at first supposed
that the mainland was only another island, and after taking in water
he sailed west, with the intention of sailing beyond it. Passing
through the narrow strait between Trinidad and the continent, he
entered the placid Gulf of Paria, where to his astonishment he found
that the water was fresh. Sailing along the shore, he landed here and
there and made friendly calls on the natives, whom he found to be a
pleasant, light-colored race, with a commendable fondness for
exchanging pearls for bits of broken china and glass beads. No
opening could be found through which to sail farther westward, and
Columbus soon came to the opinion that he had this time reached
the continent of Asia.
One thing greatly astonished him. He had been fully convinced
that the nearer he should approach the equator the blacker would be
the people and the hotter the climate. Yet the people of Paria were
light-colored, and the climate was vastly cooler than the scorching
regions of the equatorial calms. Remembering also the remarkable
conduct of the stars, which had materially altered their places since
he had left the Cape Verde Islands, and reflecting upon the unusual
force of the currents which had latterly interfered severely with the
progress of the ship, Columbus proceeded to elaborate a new and
attractive geographical theory. He wrote to Ferdinand and Isabella
that, in his opinion, the world was not exactly round, like a ball or an
orange, as he had hitherto maintained, but that it was shaped like a
large yellow pear. He assumed that the region which he had now
reached corresponded to the long neck of the pear, near the stem,
as it appears when the pear is resting on its larger end. He had
consequently sailed up a steep ascent since leaving Spain, and had
by this means reached a cool climate and found light-colored
heathen.
This was a very pretty theory, and one which ought to have
satisfied any reasonable inventor of geographical theories; but
Columbus, warming with his work, proceeded still further to
embellish it. He maintained that the highest point of the earth was
situated a short distance west of the coast of Paria, and that on its
apex the Garden of Eden could be found. He expressed the opinion
that the Garden was substantially in the same condition as when
Adam and Eve left it. Of course a few weeds might have sprung up
in the neglected flower-beds, but Columbus was confident that the
original tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the
conversationally disposed animals, were all to be found in their
accustomed places. As for the angel with the two-edged sword, who
had been doing sentry duty at the gate for several thousand years,
there could be no doubt that should an explorer present to him a
written pass signed by the Pope, the angel would instantly admit him
into the Garden.
Columbus now felt that, whatever failures might seem to
characterize his new exploring expedition, he had forever secured
the gratitude and admiration of the pious Queen. To have almost
discovered the Garden of Eden in a nearly perfect state of repair was
certainly more satisfactory than the discovery of any amount of gold
would have been. Still, he thought it could do no harm to mention in
his letter to the Queen that pearls of enormous value abounded on
the coast, and that the land was fertile, full of excellent trees and
desirable fruits, and populous with parrots of most correct
conversational habits, and monkeys of unusual moral worth and
comic genius.
Although Columbus failed to visit the Garden of Eden, either
because he had no pass from the Pope or because he could not
spare the time, it must not be imagined that he did not believe his
new and surprising theory. In those happy days men had a capacity
for belief which they have since totally lost, and Columbus himself
was probably capable of honestly believing even wilder theories than
the one which gave to the earth the shape of a pear and perched the
Garden on the top of an imaginary South American mountain.
As the provisions were getting low, and the Admiral’s fever was
getting high—not to speak of his gout, which manifested a tendency
to rise to his stomach—he resolved to cease exploring for a time,
and to sail for Hispaniola. He arrived there on the 19th of August,
after discovering and naming a quantity of new islands. The currents
had drifted him so far out of his course, that he reached the coast of
Hispaniola a hundred and fifty miles west of Ozima, his port of
destination. Sending an Indian messenger to warn Bartholomew of
his approach, he sailed for Ozima, where he arrived on the 30th of
August, looking as worn out and haggard as if he had been engaged
in a prolonged pleasure-trip to the Fishing Banks.
Don Bartholomew received his brother with the utmost joy, and
proceeded to make him happy by telling him how badly affairs had
gone during his absence. Bartholomew had followed the Admiral’s
orders, and had proved himself a gallant and able commander. He
had built a fort and founded a city at the mouth of the Ozima, which
is now known as San Domingo. Leaving Don Diego Columbus in
command of the colony, he had marched to Xaragua, the western
part of the island, and induced the Cacique Behechio and his sister
Anacaona, the widow of Caonabo, to acknowledge the Spanish rule
and to pay tribute. He had also crushed a conspiracy of the natives,
which was due chiefly to the burning of several Indians at the stake
who had committed sacrilege by destroying a chapel. These were
the first Indians who were burnt for religious purposes, and it is a pity
that Father Boyle had not remained in Hispaniola long enough to
witness the ceremony which he had so often vainly urged the
Admiral to permit him to perform. Probably Don Bartholomew was
not responsible for the burning of the savages, for he evidently
sympathized with the revolted natives, and suppressed the
conspiracy with hardly any bloodshed.
[Æt. 62–64; 1498–1500]

The colonists, both old and new, were of course always

discontented, and cordially disliked the two brothers of the Admiral.
The chief judge of the colony, Francisco Roldan, undertook to
overthrow the authority of the Adelentado, and to make himself the
ruler of the island. After much preliminary rioting and strong
language Roldan openly rebelled, and with his followers besieged
Don Bartholomew in Fort Concepcion, in which he had taken refuge,
and from which he did not dare to sally, not feeling any confidence in
his men. Roldan was unable to capture the fort, but he instigated the
natives to throw off Bartholomew’s authority, and convinced them
that he, and not the Adelentado, was their real friend.
The opportune arrival of the two supply ships, which sailed from
Spain while Columbus was fitting out his third expedition, probably
saved the authority and the life of Don Bartholomew. He immediately
left the fort and, going to San Domingo, took command of the newly
arrived troops, and proclaimed Roldan a traitor, which greatly
relieved his mind. The traitor thereupon marched with his men to
Xaragua, where they led a simple and happy life of vice and
immorality. The discord among the Spaniards induced the natives to
make another attempt to gain their liberty, but the Adelentado, in a
brilliant campaign, once more reduced them to subjection. Two
native insurrections, a Spanish rebellion, and unusual discontent
were thus the chief features of the pleasant story with which
Columbus was welcomed to Hispaniola.
Before he could take any active measures against Roldan,
except to issue a proclamation expressly confirming Don
Bartholomew’s assertion that he was a traitor, the three ships which
he had sent direct to Hispaniola when he divided his fleet at the
Cape Verde Islands, arrived off the coast of Xaragua, and perceiving
Spaniards on the shore, imagined that they were respectable
colonists. Roldan fostered that delusion until he had obtained arms
and supplies, when he admitted that from the holiest motives he had
rebelled against the tyranny of the Adelentado.
The men of the fleet, learning that Roldan’s followers were a set
of reckless scoundrels, were inclined to think that perhaps
transportation was not such a terrible affair after all, and began to
desert with great alacrity, and to join the rebels. The ships therefore
put to sea, and their commander, on arriving at San Domingo,
informed Columbus that Roldan would probably surrender if it was
made an object to him to do so.
The Admiral was anxious to march on Xaragua, capture Roldan,
and make an example of him; but his unpopularity and that of his
brothers was so great that he did not dare to risk leaving San
Domingo, lest it should rebel as soon as his back was turned. In
order to rid himself of some of the malcontents, he fitted out five
vessels, and offered a free passage to Spain to every one who
wished to return. The ships sailed, carrying letters from both
Columbus and Roldan, in which each described the other in
uncomplimentary terms.
 Columbus would now have marched against Roldan, but he
could not find more than seventy men who felt well enough to march
with him. The rest said they had headaches, or had sprained their
ankles, and really must be excused. There was nothing left to do but
to negotiate with the rebel leader, and compromise matters.
Columbus began by offering a free pardon to Roldan if he would
immediately surrender. Roldan, in his turn, offered to pardon
Columbus if he would agree to certain conditions. These
negotiations were continued for a long time, and after various
failures the Admiral succeeded in obtaining a compromise. He
agreed to reappoint Roldan Chief Judge of the colony; to grant him a
certificate that all the charges which had been made against him
were malicious lies; to give him and his followers back pay, slaves,
and compensation for their property which had been destroyed; to
send back to Spain such of the rebels as might wish to return, and to
give the remainder large grants of land. On these conditions Roldan
agreed to overlook what had passed and to rejoin the colony. This
successful compromise served years afterwards as a model for
Northern Americans when dealing with their dissatisfied brethren,
and entitles Columbus to the honor of being the first great American
compromiser.
Having thus settled the dispute, the Admiral wrote to Spain,
explaining that the conditions to which he had agreed had been
extorted by force and were therefore not binding, and that on
Roldan’s massive cheek deserved to be branded the legend Fraud
first triumphant in American History. He asked that a commissioner
should be sent out to arrest and punish the rebel chief, and to take
the place of Chief Judge now fraudulently held by Roldan.
There is of course no doubt that Columbus would have hung
Roldan with great pleasure had he been able to do so. He was
compelled by force of circumstances to yield to all the rebel’s
demands, but nevertheless it was hardly fair for him to claim that his
acts and promises were not binding. Still, it should be remembered
that he was suffering from malarial fever, and it is notorious that even
the best of men will tell lies without remorse if they live in a malarious
region and have houses for sale or to let.
 The Admiral, having thus restored order, was about to return to
Spain to explain more fully his conduct and that of Don Bartholomew,
when he heard that four ships commanded by Alonzo de Ojeda had
arrived at Xaragua. He immediately suspected that something was
wrong, and that in Ojeda he would have a new and utterly
unscrupulous enemy to deal with. Foreseeing that an emergency
was about to occur in which a skilful scoundrel might be of great
assistance to him, he gave Roldan the command of two ships, and
sent him to ascertain what Ojeda intended to do. The wily Roldan
anchored just out of sight of Ojeda’s fleet, while the latter, with fifteen
men only, was on shore. Landing with a strong force, and placing
himself between Ojeda and his ships, he waited for the latter to meet
him and explain matters.
Ojeda soon appeared, and was delighted to see a gentleman of
whom he had heard such favorable reports. He said he was on his
way to San Domingo, and had merely landed for supplies. He had
been authorized to make discoveries by Fonseca, the Secretary of
Indian Affairs, and his expedition had been fitted out with the
assistance of Amerigo Vespucci and other enterprising merchants.
He had been cruising in the Gulf of Paria, and had his ships loaded
with slaves. As soon as he could he intended to visit Columbus, who,
he regretted to say, was probably the most unpopular man in Spain,
and would soon be removed from his command. Roldan returned to
San Domingo with this information, and both he and the Admiral
agreed that they did not believe anything that Ojeda had said.
Meanwhile Ojeda, having met with many of Roldan’s former
adherents, who still lingered in Xaragua, was informed by them that
Columbus had not given them their back pay. Ojeda said that such
injustice made his blood boil, and that if they would join him he would
march to San Domingo and put an end to the base Italian tyrant. The
new rebellion was prevented by the arrival of Roldan with a
respectable array of troops, and Ojeda promptly went on board his
flag-ship. Roldan wrote to him asking for an interview, and reminding
him that rebellion was a crime which every good man ought to abhor.
Ojeda, replied that such was precisely his opinion, and he must
refuse to have anything to do with a man who had lately been a
rebel.
Soon afterward Ojeda sailed away in a northerly direction,
keeping near the shore, and Roldan marched along the coast to
intercept him in case he should land. Arriving at a place called by the
natives Cahay, Ojeda sent a boat ashore, which was captured by
Roldan, and in order to regain it he was finally forced to consent to
parley with his antagonist. The result was that Ojeda promised to sail
immediately for Spain. Having made this promise he naturally landed
soon after on another part of the island, but being followed by
Roldan he finally abandoned Hispaniola and sailed for Cadiz with his
cargo of slaves.
The Admiral was greatly pleased at this signal illustration of the
wisdom of the proverb about setting a rogue to catch a rogue, and
writing Roldan a complimentary letter, requested him to remain for a
little while in Xaragua.
While Ojeda’s ships were at Xaragua, Columbus had passed
sentence of banishment on Hernando de Guevara, a dissolute young
Spaniard, and sent him to embark on board one of Ojeda’s vessels.
He arrived at Xaragua after the ships had left, and Roldan ordered
him to go into banishment at Cahay. Guevara, however, had fallen in
love with an Indian maid, the daughter of Anacaona, and wanted to
remain in Xaragua and marry her. Roldan would not listen to him,
and the unhappy youth went to Cahay, where he stayed three days
and then returned. There was a spirited quarrel between him and
Roldan, and the latter finally yielded and allowed Guevara to remain.
The grateful young man immediately conspired against Roldan
and the Admiral. He had a cousin, De Mexica, a former associate of
Roldan’s in rebellion, who immediately took up the cause of the
exile. De Mexica soon convinced his ex-rebel friends that the
spectacle of Roldan, as an upright, law-abiding man, was simply
revolting, and that he and Columbus ought to be killed. He had
gathered a small force together, when he and his chief associates
were suddenly surprised by the Admiral, arrested, tried, and hanged
before they had time to realize that anything was the matter.
 Don Bartholomew was dispatched to Xaragua to aid Roldan, and
the two, after arresting Guevara, stamped out the new rebellion with
remorseless energy. This time there was no compromise, and a
suspicion began to prevail that rebellion was not so safe and
profitable an industry as it had been hitherto.
 CHAPTER XVI.
HIS RETURN IN DISGRACE.

[Æt. 64; 1500]

ON the 23d of August, 1500, two ships arrived at San Domingo,

commanded by Don Francisco de Bobadilla, who had been sent out
by the Spanish monarchs as a commissioner to investigate the state
of the colony. The enemies of Columbus had at last succeeded in
prejudicing Ferdinand and Isabella against him. Ojeda, the returned
colonists, Roldan’s rebels, and the letters of Roldan himself, all
agreed in representing the Admiral as a new kind of fiend, with
Italian improvements, for whom no punishment could be sufficiently
severe.
Ferdinand calculated the total amount of gold which Columbus
had either carried or sent to Spain, and, finding it smaller than he
had expected, could no longer conceal his conviction that Columbus
was a cruel, tyrannical, and wicked man. Isabella had hitherto
believed in the Admiral, and had steadily stood by him while under
fire, but in face of the evidence which had latterly been submitted to
her, and in view of the cargo of slaves that had been sent from
Hispaniola to Spain in spite of her orders, she was compelled to
admit that an investigation should be made, and sanctioned the
appointment of Bobadilla, with the understanding that he would let
no guilty man escape.
The average historian is always very indignant with the
monarchs for sending Bobadilla to San Domingo, and regards that
act as a wanton persecution of a great and good man. But the cold
and sceptical inquirer will ask how it happened that every person
who came under the Admiral’s authority, with the exception of his two
brothers, invariably made complaints against him. It is true that the