The project is a 1000SF studio for a photographer, the owner of a century old house in rural New Mexico. The soft geometry of the interior of the existing adobe house was extended to the addition as undulating wall profiles that enclose the studio space. The roof is a continuously varying curved surface that connects the exterior wall profiles.

As the house is situated in a remote part of New Mexico, there were few builders in the area capable of addressing the complexity of the geometry of the saddle-shaped roof surface, even over a simple rectangular plan. This was recognized as a significant factor in the execution of the project, so digital documentation and machine shaping were used to control quality and quantities, to simplify layout without the need for patternmaking or field measurement, putting the resources of digital fabrication into the hands of independent, single pickup truck contractors.

The walls were conventionally stick-framed, and waterjet cut Microlam ledgers were attached at the parapet level. As these were digitally matched and marked with the locations of the roof joists, the framers only had to correctly set the height of these pieces to create a continuous, curving band around the perimeter.

The geometry of the roof framing was optimized to limit spans to 20’ and restrict the finished joist depth to 12”, allowing all roof members to be cut from 20” depth Microlam material. An inventory of joists and blocking that distinguished straight from curved elements was generated to systematize the installation of  hundreds of uniquely shaped roof framing elements.