Advancing Craft: A translation to modern tectonics

Well-made joinery can be pricey, no matter if it is hand-crafted or prefabricated. This thesis attempts to understand all available tectonics used to fabricate joints and find a potential alternative to generate well-made joints in a more accessible manner. Specifically looking at traditional Japanese carpentry, Japanese joinery is a crucial precedent for examining due to its prestigious nature for withstanding the test of time and earthquakes. Here following the crafting of traditional joints is necessary to understand the hand-tool tectonic, allowing for an understanding to then iterate joints in the other tectonics with machine-tools and information-tools. Retrofitting provides for the opportunity for owners to add additional components to their existing properties. The standard residential home is commonly retrofitted by the owners to follow the ‘trend’ and ‘personalise’ their home. The want for retrofitting is usually due to the basic nature of cookie-cutter homes that are common to the New Zealand suburbs. By studying ways to construct joints, methods of fabricating joinery can assist the DIY culture in New Zealand, whether through prefabrication on the CNC router that is sold as kitsets or machine jigs that can be made onsite.