Innovative Architecture Studio Course Recognized With 2023 Timber Education Prize

Rendering courtesy of John Folan

"UDBS AR Home Lab: Street Legal," an advanced studio course by two U of A faculty, was recently recognized as one of five 2023 Timber Education Prize winners. This diagram depicts the workforce housing prototype as it might appear on an infill site in Northwest Arkansas.

A studio course by two U of A faculty was recently recognized as one of five 2023 Timber Education Prize winners. The prize is awarded through the Softwood Lumber Board and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.

"UDBS AR Home Lab: Street Legal" is an advanced studio in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design that was taught during the spring 2023 semester by John Folan, professor and department head of architecture, and Candice Adams, teaching assistant professor of architecture, through the school's Urban Design Build Studio. 

Street Legal is the fourth in a series of sequential courses researching affordable housing options within Arkansas and across the country. Students in the studios researched the affordable housing issue and engaged with community members and local organizations to consider social and economic realities as fundamental components of their design process.

"Congratulations to John Folan, Candi Adams and all others who participated in the formation of the pedagogy leading to this national prize-winning studio sequence," said Peter MacKeith, dean of the Fay Jones School. "The recognition validates our work as a leading school in innovative curricula and validates our position in the nation as a leading school in low-carbon design futures. The work of the UDBS under professor Folan's leadership has been extraordinary, and the impact of that work has been evident both locally and now nationally. Again, congratulations!"

Timber Education Prize

The ACSA awards the Timber Education Prize to courses that create a stimulating and evidence-based environment for learning about timber. The winning courses equip students with the knowledge and design skills to achieve green building goals in a range of project types.

"The Wave Layered Timber technology employed in this workforce housing promises to address a broad range of considerations," Folan said. "Beyond being innovative in terms of its physical and structural capabilities, it offers the opportunity for low-barrier job skill training that can support living wage employment for a much needed labor force in this region. Mass timber construction typically requires heavy equipment and advanced skill sets. This system can be created by bringing together single boards one at a time, meaning entry-level crews can be employed in erection of the structure. Our own students, many constructing at full-scale for the first time, are able to tangibly demonstrate the advantages of the system in application — complementing efforts in design."  

Since Folan arrived at the U of A in 2019, he's been focused on the need for affordable housing and its design possibilities. This work — part of what drew him to the Fay Jones School — is done through the Urban Design Build Studio AR Home Lab, which operates from a school facility in the U of A's Art and Design District in south Fayetteville.

With nearly 19 million acres of forested land in Arkansas constituting nearly 57% of land cover, architectural design that utilizes wood and timber construction provides a significant opportunity to impact the state's economy. The Urban Design Build Studio initiated the exploration of innovative mass timber technologies that capitalize on the abundance of wood products materialized within the state.

Street Legal Studio

The Street Legal advanced design-build studio refined a prototype for a home by physically working with building materials, specifically wave layered timber — a new mass timber-wood technology developed in Scandinavia by the company WLT Capital. The school has entered into a licensing agreement with WLT Capital and will be the first to use it in the United States. Street Legal refers to the move to use this wave layered timber for the first time in this country.

Wave layered timber relies on the use of standard lumber run through a planer machine, forming a rippled surface. Those boards are then stacked together, with the wave profile of the pieces fitted together. These aggregated mass timber elements are entirely "designed for deconstruction," minimizing construction waste and enhancing the reusability of processed lumber.

The studio focuses on final design refinement through the execution of construction documents, physical manipulation of material and project implementation. Students began the semester by analyzing the design and developing coherent material production, assembly and implementation plans for the home. Students worked with faculty, consultants and the Urban Design Build Studio partners to estimate, quantify and analyze construction strategies and assemblies. Significant partners supporting these housing initiatives and the use of innovative timber technologies include the Walton Family Foundation and the Walton Personal Philanthropy Group, which are both interested in fresh approaches to addressing the region's housing crisis. Another partner, Bank OZK, helps families finance their homes.

Of the 18 students in the spring 2023 studio, 10 were graduating seniors. They documented their process through videos, construction documents and scaled models — all resources for anyone to learn the process.

The jury selected five courses to receive a cash prize and support to lead the course at the host institution within the next two years. In addition, the jury selected two courses to receive honorable mentions, for impactful courses. The winning course proposals were presented at the 2023 ACSA/AIA Intersections Research Conference: Material Economies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in October.

Fay Jones School students in the spring 2023 Street Legal studio included Rube Carrigan, Matthew Findlay, Zackary Kress, Austin Phillips, Carson Shank, Lindsi Shipley and Joe Williams, all fourth-year students at the time (and now fifth-year students), and Joshua Amaya, Lindsay Anderson, Greg Azlin, Milo Barnes, Eva Bwiza, Alexander Cooper, Trace Donaldson, Brock Harper, Derek Jebsen, Harlee Marroy and Brett Sorters, all fifth-year students at the time (and now graduates of the program).

About the Softwood Lumber Board: The Softwood Lumber Board is an industry-funded initiative established to promote the benefits and uses of softwood lumber products in outdoor, residential and non-residential construction and to increase demand for softwood lumber and appearance products. Through strategic investments in pro-wood communications, standards development, design and engineering assistance, research, demonstrations and partnerships, the organization seeks to make softwood lumber the preferred material choice from both an economic and an environmental standpoint.

About the ACSA: The mission of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture is to lead architectural education and research. Founded in 1912 by 10 charter members, ACSA is an international association of architecture schools preparing future architects, designers and change agents. The full membership includes all of the accredited professional degree programs in the United States and Canada, as well as international schools and two- and four-year programs. Together ACSA schools represent some 7,000 faculty educating more than 40,000 students. ACSA seeks to empower faculty and schools to educate increasingly diverse students, expand disciplinary impacts and create knowledge for the advancement of architecture.