Timber Studio / Institute for Architecture, AHO

About

Timber Studio has offered a series of master’s courses at AHO that addressed different forms of urban densification with wooden constructions: they focused on low-rise high-density developments outside of central Oslo (“Making a Case for Urban Timber Housing”, fall 2016), on generic constructions that obtain individual characteristics within an urban block and with the individuals they house (“Housing Individuals”, fall 2020), on vertical extensions that aim to rather benefit than exploit existing buildings (“Timber Topping”, fall 2021), and on strategies for demountable timber constructions as mixed-use infill projects (“Timber Housing Cycles”, spring 2022). 

The course “Re:Source Pavilion” (fall 2022) explored the material aspect at a smaller scale and developed the concept and design for a pavilion made of “disregarded wooden materials”. The building project had been initiated by WCTE2023 and has been realised at Oslo Central Station during the World Conference on Timber Engineering in June 2023 (WCTE 2023). 

While the previous Timber Studio courses at AHO had focused on appealing and appropriate architecture, flexible layouts, sound construction and design for disassembly, this course dived deeper into both ends of circular design: the materials’ provenience and the construction’s afterlife. Disregarded materials became the student projects’ “Re:Sources”: waste wood found at recycling stations, cut-outs from CLT production, parts directly rescued from obsolete buildings, worn out pallets and excess materials from other projects have been joined into new construction members in 1:1 mock-ups. The students have explored the materials’ poetic and conceptual potential, their constructive capacity, and the role of various joining options.