On Thursday, November 7, an excited group of developers, builders, researchers, and community members traveled to the A.A. "Red" Emmerson Advanced Wood Products Lab to take a look at the newest Mass Plywood Panel (MPP) Workforce Housing prototype, designed in collaboration with the experts at TallWood Design Institute (TDI) and the Institute for Health in the Built Environment (IHBE). The completed house was built with prefabricated mass plywood panels, allowing the house to be 'flat packed', or shipped in pieces for an efficient assembly process. The comfortably sized dwelling spans about 760 square feet and is constructed as a two-story, two-bedroom, designed to serve as part of a "cottage cluster" or as an accessory dwelling unit (ADU). Serving as a "proof of concept" for potential builders and developers, this is the first time the house has been made available to the public for viewing, outside of the 2024 Mass Timber Research & Design Innovation Symposium in September. The initial response to the prototype has been positive.
"The quality is obvious. I think the structural integrity just kind of jumps out at you. This is really well-built. It's exciting. It feels open and roomy," explained Nick Green, president of Catalyst Public Policy Advisors and the managing director for the Regional Rural Revitalization (R3) Strategies Consortium. "I was talking to a colleague of mine who's in an apartment that's got the same square footage and she's like, 'I'd upgrade today.' So that's good feedback [concerning the prototype]."
"I love how they've used light, down on the ground floor here, but also with the clerestory windows and the big windows upstairs and the spaces that they've cut out to make it appear bigger than what it is," said Terrie Jarrell, an engineer based in Portland. "They've done a great job of making it feel more spacious than what they've got."
The open house event was a culmination of the efforts undertaken by the TDI team, led by UO Architecture faculty Judith Sheine and Mark Fretz, for phase one. Phase one of the project, which was funded by a 2022 US Economic Development Administration (EDA) Build Back Better Regional Challenge (BBBRC) award, focused on testing construction means and methods, including evaluating shipping efficiency and field assembly, and documenting labor effort and material costs. The house was open to the public for tours with the opportunity to hear from key project leads. The project also showcased the thermal and seismic resilience of mass timber as a building product, while exploring a possible cost-effective solution to the housing crisis. The implications of the design excited professionals who are eager to help with the housing crisis.
"I just think in a lot of ways, this is going to really simplify how homes can come together in the field," said Scott Miller, Mariel Design. "Not only for the benefit of the builder and the developer, but also the end consumer. I think it's a really unique concept. So I'm excited to see where it goes, and hopefully I can be a part of that in some capacity moving forward as well."
TDI is a partnership between the Colleges of Forestry and Engineering at Oregon State University (OSU) and the College of Design at the University of Oregon (UO). TDI is one of the nation’s first interdisciplinary research collaboratives focused exclusively on the advancement of mass timber and other wood products building solutions. Through diverse faculty expertise, cutting-edge facilities, and dynamic partnerships with manufacturers, designers, and other stakeholders, TDI oversees a wide range of testing and applied research and provides unique educational opportunities for a growing mass timber workforce.
In addition to the collaboration, OSU, UO, and TDI are also a part of the Oregon Mass Timber Coalition. The Oregon Mass Timber Coalition (OMTC) is a partnership between Oregon’s leading research universities and government agencies with a goal to enhance and expand Oregon’s established mass timber industry ecosystem, growing it into a significant regional cluster. The MPP Workforce Housing Prototype is just one of the ways that UO, OSU, TDI, and OMTC are able to deliver on their goals and commitment to providing a safer, more resilient future for all using mass timber.
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