This portable mass timber solar kiln was the primarily physical deliverable for the Inaugural Forestry Architecture Fellowship, a collaboration between the Auburn University College of Architecture and the AU School of Forestry & Wildlife Sciences.

The kiln harvests freely-available solar energy to reduce the moisture content of freshly-milled lumber to a level that renders the wood stable as a building material. The design pairs the age-old method of admitting and trapping heat through a transparent membrane with a novel application of the wicking power of wood end grain, sliced on a diagonal thousands of times to increase its exposed surface area.

Fabrication methods were limited to the use of readily-accessible hand tools and standard dimensional lumber to simulate the realities of small-scale, diffuse fabrication. Employing small-scale, decentralized methods, the solar kiln was constructed from in situ-fabricated nail-laminated timber (NLT). It is deliberately scaled for the logistic and constructive possibilities of a small, skilled labor team. The simplest form of mass timber, NLT can be assembled from dimensional lumber with modest tools. 

Beyond the self-contained test of this design’s functionality as a solar kiln - with its experimental application of exposed end grain as a method for moisture mitigation - this project investigates the wider feasibility of field-manufactured mass timber as a method for the construction of small structures.

Upon completion, the project was transported to Auburn University’s Rural Studio, where it will be monitored and further studied as it begins its useful life.