Open Woods

Architecture provides the context in which building materials are harvested, refined, assembled, and inhabited. As a material practice, architecture has evolved by developing systems of production for ease of efficiency, profit, and access while extracting and reshaping productive landscapes. These systems influence relationships between the process of building architecture and the production of building materials, with resulting methods of human activity that negatively impact these life-sustaining ecosystems. This thesis engages in systems of locally sourced wood architecture while critically analyzing the material's embodied carbon, applied effectiveness, and overall longevity in the Canadian climate. Research was guided through theories of open form, regionalism, and embodied carbon to better incorporate wood architecture to its inhabited landscape. Open Woods investigates relationships between a building's desired wood product and the required wood producing landscapes. In doing so, it attempts to develop sustainable systems of wood architecture while encouraging the continued success of our woods.