Oikos, translated from Greek, means an inhabited house or as we use the word in English, a home. It is also the name of an Italian model of a CNC machine designed to cut timber. Our Oikos will then fulfill its meaning or origin cutting the timber frames and glulam homes for our Oregon shop. Sure, it will cut commercial buildings too, in fact we’re pretty excited to be able to offer more to our commercial designers and builders given the machine’s ability to cut 12" x 48" in cross-section and 60' in length. But let’s just for a moment consider the beauty of a machine named home creating homes.

Name is certainly not the reason we chose the Oikos X for the NEWBeamery in McMinnville, though it is poetic. “The Oikos X is a six-axis robotic arm style CNC machine.” said Kelsey Boyer Timber Frame Engineer for our West Coast team. “This significantly differs from what we’ve typically operated with, which is more of an assembly line style of CNC machine where there is an all-in-line variety of tools and the machine grabs the beam and brings the beam to the tool. This CNC machine brings the arm with multiple tools to the timber and moves around the timber.”

“We looked at three separate machines,” continues Kelsey. “And we ranked each machine in a series of categories. As we worked through this decision matrix, and looked at the rankings of the categories that we value highly, the Oikos was ranked above the other two competitors.” 

After making the decision, Kelsey and lead timber framer Darren Watson traveled to Italy to spend time actually running some of our joinery through an Oikos X that is nearly identical to the one that would be ours. Then we worked with a company to create some customized tools for our arm, so that we could use the Oikos more. This makes our machine even more personalized to the way we cut frames.

If there is something that makes our team smile it is getting a chance to lend their talents to a custom high-performance wood structure in a beautiful locale. Tucked behind hair pinned Catskill roads and well of the beaten path in Saugerties, NY is a deep woods site on top of a jagged escarpment of Catskill blue stone. This is the location for an eco-friendly and passive house build designed by Architect Barry Price and enclosed using New Energy Works high performance enclosure. “It’s not one of these properties that’s about getting the views, its more about making a place within it. The inspiration was the escarpment,” Price said.

Passive homes are intentionally insulated, purposely built, airtight structures that use the heat generated inside a house via habitants and appliances to maintain a comfortable climate inside the house. They are designed and built to maintain a consistent temperature regardless of orientation and external environmental factors. The goal, in the case of this Catskill project, is to build a high-performing panelized home that harmoniously lives in its surroundings…but with the least amount of discernable impact on them.

 “The emerging scene in not only passive house building but sustainable building is carbon sequestration,” shares Price. “New Energy Works is a wood-based company which is one of the things that draws me to them, also because our obligation is to use wood and sequester carbon and try to make carbon positive buildings. My experience with traditional stick building is that its super inefficient, when you think about how many pick-up trucks come and go in a day, how many dumpsters are filled up with waste.”

Tucked away in the pastoral heart of the Finger Lakes region is an award-winning golf course, Ravenwood, which spotlights 18 holes, lush greens, and crisp fairways while offering a unique challenge to golfers of all skill levels. A full-service facility, Ravenwood also hosts weddings, corporate events and banquets on its expansive grounds. 

For everything that the course encompasses, to take the property to the next level they needed a clubhouse upgrade. The clubhouse is a naturally a high traffic area, a place to take a respite from the course, or to catch up with friends after a long day of golf. Adding a diverse outdoor space to the facility was a priority for Ravenwood and the most efficient way to develop this new space while still providing long term stability and a touch of class to the existing clubhouse was by introducing heavy timber. 

The incorporation of a timber frame into the Ravenwood clubhouse was to provide patrons with “a wow factor,” Jennifer Gossage, Director of Clubhouse Operations at Ravenwood said. “Our vision included an indoor-outdoor bar area connected to beautiful patio space. The timber frame was the ideal solution, combing rustic charm with elegance to achieve the impact we desired. We wanted to upgrade our facility and to provide patrons with an enhanced experience.”

Situated on a tree dotted slope overlooking the property, the clubhouse nestles into the surrounding landscape. A central hub of activity for the facility, the upgrade needed to be inviting as well as functional. A well thought out outdoor space can have as powerful an aesthetic impact on visitors as a beautifully designed interior space. In the case of a Ravenwood, the new timer frame build offers the specialized experience of seamlessly enjoying indoor leisure activities without ever having to leave the course.