Wasted wood sees new life

Architecture professor Ryan Smith discusses how faculty and students are reclaiming forest timber destroyed by pine beetles to use as construction material. Rather than letting the wood go to waste, it is being reconstituted into a much higher value product for the market place—interlocking cross-laminated timber. To assess its quality for future use by the public, the beetle-killed pine is being used to construct a bathhouse at the Rio Mesa Center—one of the U’s research field stations—located in a remote area in southeastern Utah. The interdisciplinary timber project is supporting students in architecture, engineering, fabrication, and construction. Watch the video here: Wasted Wood Sees New Life.