Sylvanna Dong
Recent events, such as natural disasters including bushfires and floods, as well as social and economic pressures for temporary and low-cost housing demonstrate the need for walls that can be quickly constructed without big overheads and infrastructure.
Digiblock is an alternative construction system which utilises CNC cut timber sheets to construct boxes which are then held together through tension. The open-source and easy to use nature of the system, paired with the usage of off-the shelf elements from Bunnings allows anyone with a CNC machine to manufacture the blocks and build structures quickly and efficiently anywhere.

The Digiblock Community Centre – Interior View

The Digiblock Community Centre is formed at the factory’s end of use, where changes and additions are made to the existing structure to transform it into a new and permanent community centre which can cater to different programs and services. A new, larger roof structure, also manufactured using the CNC machine, but covered with more permanent roofing, protects the structure and creates a double height interior for community use.

The Digiblock Factory – Interior View

The Digiblock Factory is designed as a temporary factory which can be quickly erected and be used to make digiblocks for temporary housing. In the event of a bushfire for example, like the one that affected Mallacoota in 2019, the factory can be quickly assembled from prefab digiblocks trucked to site. A lightweight ‘solar tarpaulin’ provides shelter from the rain and generates power on site; a series of CNC machines are installed in the factory and can be used to manufacture more digiblocks for the construction of relief housing.

The Digiblock Community Centre – Parts & Axo

The Digiblock Factory – Parts & Axo

The Digiblock Community Centre – Plan & Section

The Digiblock Factory – Plan & Section

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