Mass Timber Pavillion / Jesús Vassallo

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The project was designed by Professor Jesus Vassallo's wood construction seminar at Rice University, with a team consisting of graduate students Pouya Khadem and Lene Sollie in collaboration with structural engineer Tracy Huynh.Text description provided by the architects.Located within the Rice University campus, the Harris Gully Natural Area is a restored watershed consisting of several microhabitats, from wet savannah to dense forests and shrublands.Made of Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) from local southern pine forests, the pavilion is a negative structure in its carbon use and a test of the possibilities of this sustainable construction technology.Thanks to Harris Gully, and despite being located in the heart ofHouston, Rice is one of the most biodiverse universities in the country, with the highest bird species list of any campus in North America. The Laminated Wood Pavilion, an observation platform immersed in the landscape, represents the first step in a long-term plan to manage this ecosystem.Funding for the project was obtained through a federal grant from the United States Forest Service, with additional funds provided by generous donations to the School of Natural Sciences and the Lynn R. Lowrey Arboretum.The pavilion itself is an abstract object, conceived and located in the picturesque tradition. Like the ruins of a small temple, it invites and accommodates nature around it. In its simplicity, indeterminacy, and openness, it suggests the lightness that should guide the management of the natural area in the future.With a didactic design, the building shows the CLT panels in their purest form, as a giant piece of furniture that makes the logic of their assembly evident. The immediate way in which the material is presented underscores its structural versatility, presenting CLT as a forged, pillar, and capital.