Dr Qianbin Xu from UQ’s School of Architecture, Design and Planning has received a Highly Commended Award in the Photograph category of the 2026 Visions of Research competition for his photographic work Grammar Written in Timber. The competition celebrates how UQ researchers communicate the creativity, significance and impact of their research through visual media.
Grammar Written in Timber presents a monochrome study of light and shadow across a digitally fabricated timber assembly. The work draws directly from Xu’s research into reconfigurable architecture, where traditional Chinese mortise and tenon principles are combined with computational design, rule-based shape grammars, robotic fabrication and augmented reality (AR) assisted assembly.
The photograph translates this technical research into a visual composition. Repetition, joints, texture and shadow reveal the underlying design grammar that controls how individual timber components connect and form larger architectural configurations. In this way, the image communicates ideas of fabrication, assembly and material logic through photography rather than conventional architectural drawings.
Xu’s research, developed with Assoc Prof Frederico Fialho Teixeira, Dr Maryam Shafiei and Assoc Prof Joe Gattas has also resulted in the publication Timber system with robotic milling and AR-guided assembly for reconfiguration in Construction Robotics. The project, developed in the UQ VisLab, connects computational design with robotic CNC milling and augmented reality guidance to support timber systems that can be assembled, disassembled and reconfigured.
UQ VisLab congratulates Qianbin Xu on this recognition. Grammar Written in Timber demonstrates how visual communication can extend architectural research beyond technical documentation, connecting material experimentation, computational design and advanced manufacturing with a wider research audience.
