Thesis Highlights

"Industrial Futures in Timberland"

Sarie Keller and Olivia Vercruysse, 2024

“Industrial Futures in Timberland”

In envisioning a future for former timber towns, this thesis designs the forest and the built environment as a unified system to support mass timber as a catalyst for economic recovery and environmental healing.

The urban and architectural proposal for an engineered wood plant conceptualises the building footprint as an extension of the contextual envelope.

Situated on former mill sites with existing adjacencies to both river and rail, a series of timber superstructures allow for the integration of both industry and tourism – visitors engage with the process of mass timber manufacturing from above by inhabiting the double-layer truss system of the re-invented canopy.

The long spans offered by the series of trusses leave the ground floor open for industry while also creating a human-scaled experience among the members.

The investigation of tectonic laminated timber through the lens of the forest and their timber communities is fuelled by an ambition to better understand building lifecycles – from resource harvesting to occupation and disassembly.

Faculty Thesis Directors: Cordula Roser Gray and Todd Erlandson

WORK