Design as Scholarship
Material Custodies:
Embracing Loss, Failure, and Death as Opportunities in Wood Construction
This paper positions three projects as intertwined extensions of the greater lifecycle of wood in construction. We consider each piece of wood we engage part of an ecosystem, and our use and application of those pieces a fleeting sequestration of a material. Whether repurposed lumber on a selected site, material deposited in a particular area, or a sacrificial matrix for future growth, the wood we use is borrowed for architectural construction, fabrication, and production temporarily, with an understanding that it emerged from our biological ecosystem, and it will ultimately return to it, serving as a nutrient that feeds future resources.
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