Document #001 


studiotmmr

fabrication, teaching, research


Timmer—a word meaning timber—anchors the studio in material craft and the long lineage of making. TMMR distills that word to its essentials, mirroring a practice that pares material down to its core and reshapes it into contemporary design. This compression from timmer to TMMR reflects the way the studio moves between raw matter, fabrication, and conceptual clarity.

My work builds on open thermodynamics, design thinking, and fabrication to examine how flows of matter and energy shape architectural form and practice. As embodied energy and carbon become central to architectural discourse, this inquiry grows increasingly urgent. Through installations, experimental projects, design research, and teaching, I develop methodologies—and mentor students—to engage critically with the material and energetic forces that constitute architecture. These intensive and extensive properties ground my work, and I translate open‑systems thinking across research, teaching, and service. In doing so, I resist deterministic environmental responses and instead advance nuanced, contingent methodologies, mappings, prototypes, and typological explorations suited to today’s environmental complexities.

To engage matter and energy more directly, I rely on digital fabrication and full‑scale making as primary modes of investigation. Iterative physical experiments and courses centered on hands‑on modeling allow my students and me to work with complex flows of material and energy through direct making. This systems‑based approach supports recursive, process‑driven design methods that privilege flow over fixed outcomes. By situating design at the level of systems rather than objects, my research and pedagogy aim to better prepare students and practitioners to confront the intertwined challenges of architecture and the environment.

Although my work is formally organized into research, teaching, and service, the themes of systems thinking, energy, and matter move fluidly across all three. This shared methodological foundation has allowed my research to expand beyond energy into community‑based design and modular furniture. That broadening reinforces the value of open thermodynamic systems, systemic design thinking, and fabrication as powerful frameworks for addressing contemporary architectural problems.

- alxtmmr





studiotmmr

1/15/25

Document #015



plywood napkins
revisiting the fold through recursion

Alex Timmer
Irving Innovation Fellowship Material Research
Cambridge, MA
Fall 2016





Plywood Napkins explores the possibility of formulating a methodology for design through the deployment of a simple, repeated cutting operation. Each piece is cut, the cutoffs are then flipped and glued back together. The object then settles per its natural tendency and the process is repeated. As the surface is edited, it no longer rests flat on the table. A nominal 20-degree cut, set by a fixed saw, varies relative to the surface’s global and local permutations at any one time.

The resulting surfaces exhibit both negative and positive feedback, as the subsequent cuts cause the surface to fold in onto itself. While its footprint shrinks, its mass is conserved. At the same time, each cut and flip causes misalignments, which grow with each higher-order cut. The designer engages continuously in a dialogue between continuity and error, local expression and global form, and design intent and material intelligence.



Operation:
Select a flat stock of a desired size.
Set the band saw to 20 degrees.
Divide the stock into an odd number of pieces using the fixed saw. 1
Flip every other piece and glue them all back together. 2
Make sure to match as many surfaces and seams as possible. 3
Rotate the piece and let it settle flat. 4
Divide the surface into an odd number of pieces using the fixed saw. 1
Flip every other piece and glue them all back together. 2
Make sure to match as many surfaces and seams as possible. 3
Rotate the piece and let it settle flat. 4
Divide the surface into an odd number of pieces using the fixed saw. 1
Flip every other piece...







studiotmmr

2017
Document #013



cordwood redux sculpture

Alex Timmer
Felipe Paez
Sculpture Milwaukee Installation for the Sculpture Milwaukee side show “Hello Nature”, Spring 2023





Redux refers to the bringing back or restoration of an object of study. In cordwood redux, a version of the traditional cordwood construction or firewood stacking is reconstituted through composite Portland cement and waste wood logs. The stack is organized by each log’s environmental impact, with the wood waste constituting a sequestering of carbon and the cement constituting an expenditure of carbon. The variable mixtures result in a gradation of color, tone, texture and compressive strength as a result of the cement content. Reminiscent of firewood stacking techniques, traditional cord wood construction consists of short logs stacked and connected with mortar. The resourceful inventiveness of early practitioners was the result of a creative reuse of available material. Cordwood redux doubles down the the creative reuse of material to reconstituted the cordwood wall.

Installed in the 3rd street market mezzanine space and main pedestrian thoroughfare, cordwood redux is part of a larger exhibition entitled hello nature. The work will remain on show for the summer. When it is removed the cylinders will be further tested.

The cylinders are stacked in a repeating pattern dictated by the compressive strength of each of the cylinders. This early understanding of the compressive strength will be further evaluated after the sculpture is taken down.








studiotmmr

2023
Document #010



solar foley

Principle Investigator - Alex Timmer
University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI
2019





Developed from ongoing research into solar control devices and architectural aesthetics, and first conceptualized as part of the exhibition Formation, this sculptural installation was placed in the research garden of the School of Architecture and Planning as both a functional and expressive artifact. The piece explores the intersection of environmental responsiveness and formal repetition, using a grid of vertical and horizontal metal rods to support a series of curved, reflective panels. These panels are arranged in a rhythmic pattern that evokes both mechanical precision and organic flow.

Each face of the sculpture—northeast, south, and west—was carefully calibrated to respond to distinct solar conditions. The northeast side engages with the soft morning light, using angled surfaces to diffuse and scatter illumination across the surrounding space. The southern face, exposed to the most intense midday sun, incorporates deeper curvature and denser paneling to modulate heat and glare, functioning as a passive shading device. Meanwhile, the western side captures the warm hues of the late afternoon sun, reflecting them dynamically across the sculpture’s metallic surfaces and the adjacent landscape.

The installation’s tectonic qualities—its emphasis on construction, materiality, and assembly—are central to its architectural intent. The interplay of light and shadow across the reflective surfaces transforms throughout the day and across seasons, making the sculpture a living study in solar behavior and spatial perception. Positioned in front of a building with a grid of window panes and framed by leafless trees, the piece resonates with its context, amplifying themes of transparency, rhythm, and environmental dialogue. 

Reflective rhythms in steel: a sculptural study in light, geometry, and solar orientation, responding uniquely to northeast, south, and west exposures.







studiotmmr

2019
Document #000 


index

fabrication, teaching, research
// Projects Document #016 - conductive handrail
Document #015 - plywood napkins
Document #013 - cordwood redux sculpture
Document #011 - pervious concrete grotto
Document #010 - solar foley
Document #009 - solar totems

// Projects at Other Firms
Document #005 - outside in house
Document #004 - liberty loft
Document #003 - shadow pavilion

// Text Document #001 - studiotmmr
// Research Document #002 - cordwood redux
//Exhibits
Document #014 - the thinking hand exhibit
Document #012 - mellowes research fellowship exhibit
Document #008 - formation: exhibition and workshop
Document #007 - operative artifacts
Document #006 - rules of possibility: constructing design systems

// TeachingDocument #004




studiotmmr

1/17/25