A research team in Oregon has unveiled a mass timber prototype home that seeks to showcase a sustainable, energy-efficient alternative to traditional home construction. Designed by the TallWood Design Institute, a collaboration between the University of Oregon and Oregon State University, the 760-square-foot project was unveiled at an open house event on November 7th.

The home, built from locally sourced mass plywood panels produced by Freres Engineered Wood, aims to address key issues such as affordable housing shortages, wildfire resilience, and economic sustainability. Unlike conventional timber construction, the home is constructed of mass plywood panels shaped to fit together like pieces of a gingerbread house, the team says.

Through the project, the team imagines a future where a home could arrive in a flatpack similar to an IKEA bookshelf, with a crew and small crane assembling the pieces in a more efficient manner than traditional construction.

The plywood components were manufactured using a CNC machine which cut the panels into predesigned shapes. A new plywood product was developed for the project, which is manufactured with a one-eighth inch tolerance, considerably more precise than conventional construction. The home’s interior panels are two inches thick, half that of traditional stud frames, meaning the approach also offers a more spatial efficient system.

“Visitors have been enthusiastic about the prototype, and several have asked how they can get one,” said Judith Sheine, UO professor of architecture and director of design for the institute, who led the project alongside assistant professor Mark Fretz. “Hopefully this will lead to the production of prefabricated mass timber housing in Oregon.”

“A computer model is one thing,” Fretz added. “But now you can walk through it and experience a new kind of house and a working concept for housing in Oregon.”

News of the project comes in the same week that Archinect reported on the news that Gensler was developing new hybrid timber data centers for Microsoft. In September, meanwhile, BIG updated progress on one of the EU’s largest mass timber projects in Luxembourg.