Digitally Reshaping the Beauty of Tenon-and-Mortise Joints

GstarBIM Application Practice on an Ancient Corner Tower

 

Introduction

What sparks when the millennia-old wisdom of tenon-and-mortise joinery meets BIM technology in the digital era? In the restoration and reconstruction project of an ancient corner tower, GstarBIM leverages robust parametric capabilities and underlying logic aligned with the Yingzao Fashi (Treatise on Architectural Methods), bringing an innovation of "efficiency and quality" to ancient architectural design.

 

The Rebirth Challenges of a Time-Honored Corner Tower

This case centers on an ancient corner tower with profound historical heritage. It suffered multiple destructions during the wars. Its restoration and reconstruction officially kicked off in 2015. The tower features three bays in both width and depth, with an 8-meter side length at the ground floor and a total height of approximately 12.5 meters, presenting a solemn massing.

Nevertheless, the digitalization of ancient architecture is far from straightforward. Conventional design tools struggle greatly when applied to heritage buildings:

  • Major Timber Structure & Dougong (Bracket Sets): Tenon-and-mortise connections are highly intricate and demand high-precision calculation. Dougong components feature interwoven spatial relationships and cumbersome assembly workflows.
  • Walls & Roof Framing: Design of wall batter and plinth profiles is complex; parametric modeling of steeply sloped roof surfaces poses difficulties.
  • Exquisite Minor Timber Works: A great variety of decorative door and window components, alongside diverse railing styles from successive dynasties, create hurdles for parametric assembly.

 

Reimagine the Future of Design: GstarBIM’s Solution to Core Pain Points

GstarBIM delivers a full-set digital solution targeting the key bottlenecks in ancient architectural design:

1. Major Timber Structure & Dougong: Parametric Assembly Inheriting Yingzao Fashi

GstarBIM enables parametric creation of beams, columns, architraves, purlins and other members, supporting custom editing of diverse tenon-and-mortise profiles to accurately match and assemble complex joints. For dougong design, the software strictly follows the modular system specified in Yingzao Fashi. Components are fabricated, fitted and assembled from small to large to build a reusable module library, streamlining the highly complex dougong assembly while ensuring controllable quality.

 

2. Wall Batter & Roof Framing Design: Flexible Handling of Complex Forms

  • Walls: Supports basic single-layer walls, multi-layer composite walls, and ancient architecture-specific batter and plinth design. It precisely restores material textures and facilitates the creation of facade profiles.
  • Roof Framing: Preloaded with classic roof types including gable roof, hip-and-gable roof, hip roof and pyramidal roof, with support for custom combination and extension. Users can generate various roof forms in one click simply by adjusting ridge parameters and slopes.

 

3. Exquisite Minor Timber Works: Highly Flexible Parametric Customization

  • Doors & Windows: Offers high freedom to precisely depict lattice patterns of paneled doors and perforated windows. Components can be created via guided wizards, or imported from external formats such as RFA and SKP.
  • Railing Assembly: Through component assembly and parametric configuration (including handrails, vases, fascia boards and base rails), railings from different historical periods can be flexibly generated. It improves model standardization and reusability, cuts redundant modeling time and enables convenient reuse.

4. One-Click 2D Drawing Generation & Intelligent Quantity Takeoff: Connecting Design to Delivery

Drawings are readily available once the model is completed. GstarBIM supports one-click generation of standard drawings including floor plans, elevations and sections. Its built-in intelligent association function enables bulk generation of dimension chains for walls and doors/windows in one click. It can automatically identify component information and rapidly extract project quantities, greatly safeguarding drawing quality and efficiency.

 

Conclusion: Empowered by Technology, Heritage Architecture Regains Vitality

In this corner tower renovation project, GstarBIM overturned the stereotype that BIM struggles to support refined restoration of ancient buildings. By combining heritage inheritance with innovation, it greatly improves modeling accuracy and shortens design cycles, enabling efficient preservation of digital assets for ancient architecture.

GstarBIM · Reimagine the Future of Design.

We will continue to deepen AEC software solutions, bridging history and the future with an advanced BIM platform, so that traditional construction wisdom can be perfectly inherited and innovated within the digital world.