work: Exhibitions Galleries: Urban Timber, BSA Space

Urban Timber: From Seed to City was an exhibition that advocated the use of wood as a structural material in mid to high-rise structures in urban settings that was awarded to IKD as a guest curatorship at the Boston Society of Architects BSA Space. As part of the exhibition, IKD designed and funded a timber fabrication design competition rethinking the traditional format of architectural international competitions. Rather than immediately moving toward construction after the commission was awarded, often at the expense of the winning team(s), IKD incorporated a 6 month design development period into the project schedule.  

IKD built professional teams for each of the 4 winning young designer(s) that included, an architect, engineer, fabricator, material supplier so that each winning project could be refi ned and improved through the oversight of experts related to each of the projects at no cost to the winning teams. Additionally IKD negotiated with the partner fabricators and material suppliers that all projects would be done without cost to the designers.  

With the ultimate goal of removing more carbon from the atmosphere to impact climate change, IKD recognized that with more designers with examples of timber construction in their portfolio would lead to further commissions building with timber, allowing the carbon foot print of the competition to continually increase long after the closing the exhibition. The winning designers have won other commissions and continue to design and build with timber largely based on their experience with the Urban Timber exhibition resulting in a cumulative impact on carbon sequestration.