A Move Toward
Mass Timber by Gregg Patterson
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A wood product gains popularity and takes center stage in innovative building designs in the state
had a bag full of wooden building blocks in all shapes and sizes when I was a kid. Every so often, I’d save enough allowance money to go to the local hobby shop, and I’d add to that collection. I built countless buildings with those blocks. Peter MacKeith is having the same kind of fun. The 61-year-old dean of the University of Arkansas’ Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design is reaching into his bag of building blocks and leading the insurgence of mass timber as a key component in some of newest and most innovative architectural designs for the University of Arkansas. Timberlands cover 57 percent of Arkansas, and the stumpage timber value paid to landowners is a critical component ($439 million) of the state’s agriculture economy, as well as being a jobs producer when value-added wood products are produced here. Arkansas’ overall economy is reliant upon timber and wood products. At first glance for many, there might not seem to be a connection between architecture and agriculture. So how does architecture and growing timber relate? “In my view, agriculture and architecture are the first two forms of evidence of civilization and culture altogether.
They’ve been intertwined for thousands, if not tens of thousands of years,” MacKeith said. “And it’s absolutely relevant that the interest of our school should be directed towards the interests of Arkansas agriculture. “We’re the only school of architecture and design for the state. I feel obligated to direct our attention to how we can be of service to the state’s interests,” MacKeith said. “And in this sense, how we can be of service to the state’s forest, timber and wood products.” The in-state development and use of mass timber products fits that bill. The Ozark, Ouachita and Gulf Coastal Plain are timber-rich ecoregions. “We began to systematically look at new developments in temporal wood products and how, in many ways, the school and the university can be a source of innovation and economic development for the state’s agriculture and general economy and environment overall,” MacKeith explained.
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Arkansas Agriculture
So, just what is mass timber? Mass timber can be understood if you think of something as simple as plywood that is a set of laminates or veneers that are bonded together with an adhesive. Scale that up to glue|
ARKANSAS FARM BUREAU • FALL 2020
