Recently released: the Design for Reuse Primer, a free e-publication project by Public Architecture. In this comprehensive guide to repurposing materials directly from the waste stream, read about the reclaimed lumber and stone used at our LEED Platinum-rated Sidwell Friends Middle School in Washington, DC, including lessons learned and material sources.

Yale School of Art Gallery and Sidwell Friends Middle School
photos © Peter Aaron/Esto (left) and © Halkin Photography LLC (right)

It was announced last month that the Yale University School of Art Gallery and Sidwell Friends Middle School have received 2008 Western Red Cedar Architectural Design Awards, presented by The Western Red Cedar Lumber Association and The Cedar Shake and Shingle Bureau.

Three of our recent projects make use of western red cedar as a cladding material; Sidwell Friends Middle School, Loblolly House, and the Yale School of Art Gallery. Its varied applications are appropriate to the unique site and program circumstances for each project. Because of the variety of weathering conditions based on geography, site location, orientation of building elevations, and variable responses between wood specimens even within the same species, it is often difficult to predict the long term visual appearance of cedar cladding. But based on our research, we were able to determine that careful detailing can insure the maximum longevity and predictable appearance of the cladding. A study of the natural characteristics of the material, available water-repellents and preservatives, and detailing strategies led us to leave the cedar untreated in each instance. We were also able to advance the sustainable agendas for Yale and Sidwell by sourcing very high-grade reclaimed cedar from salvaged fermentation barrels.

Sidwell Friends Middle School, photo © Halkin Photography LLC

At Sidwell Friends Middle School, reclaimed western red cedar unifies new and existing structures. Strips are arrayed vertically and angled to permit daylight deep into the building while protecting against solar gain. At the same time they visually reference the forest. The multi-layer building envelope, including the outer layer of cedar cladding and under layers of high performance operable windows, sunscreens, and rain screens, were fabricated off-site and attached to the structure in large sections, greatly reducing the amount of on-site labor required to enclose the building.

Yale School of Art Gallery, photo © Peter Aaron/Esto

Located at the end of a row of two-story 19th century houses, the Yale School of Art Gallery is a taut wood box with side walls that subtly bow out, scaled to fit the New Haven streetscape. The exterior wall is a ventilated wood rain screen made of horizontal strips of reclaimed western red cedar. The cedar strips are beveled on the top and bottom edges to force water to drain to the outside, spaced 1/8" apart for air circulation, allowing the cladding to expand when wet and dry evenly on both sides. This layered wall construction creates a lattice-like scrim at the entry and a pattern of parted planes at the corners of the building. The gallery entrance is set within a recessed glass enclosure along the north end of the building, where an open screen of spaced cedar slats is suspended veil-like from the roof. The cladding pulls back at the corners to reveal narrow slit windows, and bands of horizontal metal wrap the walls at intervals, appearing to hold the wall planes together.

Loblolly House, photo © Peter Aaron/Esto

Loblolly House is a dwelling both among and above the trees. The pattern of the cladding is literally abstracted from a photograph of the forest, with the solids and voids rendered in the staggered vertical siding, sometimes positioned over solid wall and sometimes lapping over glazing to evoke the solids and voids of the forest. Fabricated off-site in segments for swift attachment to the house, the cladding functions as a rain screen, designed to shed most water but remain open to the movement of air. Now in its third season, the cedar is beginning to weather to a beautiful silver-gray.

© Bosch Rexroth/KieranTimberlake

In Bosch Rexroth’s latest lean manufacturing podcast, James Timberlake discusses how aluminum structural framing, commonly used in factory applications, was used to build the Cellophane House.

"We aimed to create a mass customizable system of building, not just a one-off," said James Timberlake, a founding partner at KieranTimberlake. “We wanted to show how a lean manufacturing approach could bring optimal benefits to home building.”

“Cellophane House Part I and II” is episode nine in Rexroth’s lean manufacturing podcast series, available for listening or free download from the company’s website at www.boschrexroth-us.com/leanpodcast. The podcast series is also available on iTunes and other podcast directories on the web.

Visit this link to download the podcast on iTunes or as an mp3