What stands in Rhino, may not stand in real life; or, at least, not as easily. In Rhino, simple boolean commands can make any two planes meet with the cleanest edge on the screen, but there are no such simple commands in real construction. The making of the joined corner window frames came with countless trials and errors. Adjusting the dimension to the wall frames, leaving the gap for insulation, offsetting rails for the sliding window panes, laying out shapes on plywood, cutting the pieces, laminating the frames, making mistakes, adjusting, remeasuring, recutting, reassembling, repeating…

It took us three days to construct a three-minute Rhino model in the warehouse and more challenges awaited us on-site. Due to the complex angles of the frames and the curved facade, the vertical window frame had to be installed from the outside. The strongest of us lifted up the heavy vertical frame on his shoulder, standing on the scaffold secured by two people on the uneven slope. Two others were standing by with their arms up inside the cabin, and I was ready, with screws in one hand and a drill in the other, to fasten the frame as quickly as possible once it’s in place. After the adjacent frame had been lifted in a similar fashion, a mallet was used to nudge it to the correct position. I still vividly remember that I held my breath on the last hit of the mallet—the moment the two separate window frames met to produce the cleanest edge!

— Yingxin Yang [Wood Team Member, B.Arch ‘21 at Cornell AAP]