ARC 561R / ARC 696
Instructor: Tyler Swingle
Wood is a unique material. It is a renewable resource with a cellular structure that offers a variety of structural and thermal abilities. Even in death, wood is still alive - it grows, shrinks, bends and absorbs in a responsive manner. As a standardized and mass-produced tool for construction, the uniqueness and variety of wood as an architectural material and a building resource is underused. In dialogue with the East Texas wood industry and existing material research, this studio will decouple wood as a tool from the expected production and construction methods of contemporary architecture rather than conforming to the established standards in wood usage and construction. In the end, students will develop an innovative or existing wood construction technique and design an architectural project with a program that actively promotes a form of ‘productive preservation’ in the forests of the East Texas.