College of Architecture Pushes Boundaries of Mass Timber

The College of Architecture pushes the boundaries of design and construction with mass timber. Cross-laminated timber, or C-L-T, is an engineered wood panel. It’s made by gluing layers of lumber together under high pressure. Also known as “mass timber,” CLT is a strong, sustainable alternative to steel and concrete. The College of Architecture is working with a mass timber facility in Wayne, Nebraska, to push the boundaries of mass timber buildings. VISUAL DESCRIPTION It begins with an aerial video of several cabins in a wooded valley. A man walks up to a rough hewn cabin and enters. The interior is made entirely of wood. A time lapse sequence shows the cabin being assembled from a few large pieces of pre-cut timber. Next we see a large timber yard in northeast Nebraska. An older couple look on as lumber is cut and drilled by a computer-controlled machine. As they talk, we see Professor Griffith hammering metal trim into the window slits of a prairie dog blind. Then we dissolve to a student critique in an architecture class room at the University of Nebraska. A pair of male students display their models to the class and to a female professor. We cut back to the cabin as Professor Griffith opens the windows. The video ends with an aerial shot of the cabins with a large lake in the distance.