free interactive software easily creates complex japanese wooden joints + furniture

a team of researchers from the tokyo university has developed ‘tsugite’, a software program for designing and fabricating complex wooden joints and furniture. drawing from traditional japanese craftsmanship, where wood joinery techniques include complex, interlocking elements, the software can form bonds without using nails, screws, or adhesives. all images courtesy of tsugite

the creators named the project ‘tsugite’ after the japanese word for joinery. the system allows users to create custom joints, or to pick from a series of ready-made designs. once a joint concept is finalized, it can be manufactured using a CNC milling machine. furthermore, the producers sought to give the opportunity to users with little or no prior experience in woodworking and 3D design to create their functional wooden structures in minutes.

this interactive system can be easily assembled, disassembled, reused, or recycled, as no nails or glue are required. ‘our system facilitates the creation of custom joints by a modeling interface combined with computer numerical control (CNC) fabrication. the design space is a 3d grid of voxels that enables efficient geometrical analysis and combinatorial search,’ explain the tokyo university researchers. the system supports two different modes: manual editing and gallery mode. in the first one, the user edits a joint while receiving real-time graphical feedback. at the same time, on the second mode, the user views and selects feasible joints that have been pre-calculated.

project info:

name: tsugite: interactive design and fabrication of wood joints

creator: maria larsson, hironori yoshida, nobuyuki umetani, and takeo igarashi