Timber in the City 5: Urban Habitats

Event | Timber in the City 5: Urban Habitats

Urban Habitats Competition Challenges Architecture Students to Increase Urban Density with Wood Designs

TIMBER IN THE CITY 5: Urban Habitats Competition concluded in September 2024, with the announcement of five winners and two honorable mentions. This installment of the competition focused on increasing urban density through innovative overbuilds—wood-based vertical extensions—assembled on top of existing buildings or infrastructure.

The competition challenged architecture students to develop building concepts that demonstrated innovative approaches to reimagine the built environment. Wood is particularly well suited for overbuild projects, as its lightweight nature reduces loads, its prefabrication potential minimizes construction disruption, and its sustainability benefits contribute to lower embodied carbon—making it an ideal material for vertical expansions that add density without demolition. The 159 submissions from 46 architecture schools showcase creative approaches to vertical growth. A common thread among the winning entries is their thoughtful selection of existing structures to preserve the cultural and historical fabric of their urban environments.

The submissions were evaluated by a 3-member jury of academic and industry experts including Omar Al-Hassawi (Washington State University), Erik Barth (Wentworth Institute of Technology and Gensler), and Veronica Madonna (Athabasca University). The seven winning projects, detailed below, address key urban development challenges with thoughtful, wood-focused designs.

First Place: MAXX TIMBER: Between Forest and Home
Student: Thomas Gomez Ospina
Faculty: Thomas Schaperkotter
School: Columbia University
Research Contributor: Peter Osborne, McGill University
Project Overview: MAXX Timber proposes an affordable housing model consisting of several wood-based building extensions stretching vertically above an existing New York City Housing Authority campus in downtown Brooklyn, New York.
Jury Comments: MAXX TIMBER: Between Forest and Home is uniquely designed adding a timber extension over the existing building without adding major loads to the overall design. The student created a landscape space on the roof of the existing structures for the community that is both innovative and practical. The interstitial space between the new timber massing and the existing buildings are compelling and highlight the aesthetics of timber structure. The project effectively densifies urban space in a non-imposing way.
Second Place: Local Timber
Student: Jarren Amaro
Faculty: Peter Raab
School: Texas Tech University
Project Overview: This innovative housing development isn’t just a collection of apartment units; it’s a visionary approach to urban architecture, weaving together mass timber construction with community-centric design.
Jury Comments: Local Timber is a creative design with elegant use of timber diagrid structure and Y columns that are beautifully detailed. The design also developed the project for sustainable living including a thorough embodied carbon analysis. The project respects the aesthetic and function of the existing building and showcases the capabilities of mass timber design in an urban area.
Third Place: Knox Yards
Students: Anna Grace Calhoon & Rupan
Faculty: Tricia Stuth & Jeremy Magner
School: University of Tennessee-Knoxville
Project Overview: The Regas Building (originally Harris Building) has been a stalwart presence in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, for over a century. To activate the surrounding context, the diagonal axes provide an opportunity to re-activate the streets which interjects the old and the young in this project. This project focuses on the liminal space formed between the past and the present, an attempt to choreograph the lost language of the history of the Regas Building with the prospect of fabricating the past, the present, and the future.
Jury Comments: Knox Yards creates a clever design with the timber vertical extension on top of a historic building. The highlight is the beautifully detailed sections that show spatial qualities which allow for ample amounts of air and light flow through the building. The graphic expression of the project provides a unique aesthetic that translates to the building design and highlights mass timber as a central element.
Fourth Place: Saw Solace at Bond Bread
Students: Sarah Jane Graven & Megan Bugbee
Faculty: Peter Noonan
School: University of Maryland
Project Overview: The Saw Solace addition above the existing Bond Bread Factory will create a hub of sustenance and community. New housing units coupled with a grocery store, two restaurants, a cafe, a greenhouse, and a community garden—all aimed at alleviating food scarcity.
Jury Comments: Saw Solace at Bond Bread is an expressive design with a noteworthy parti. The design includes integration of timber bracing and lateral bracing that is masterfully achieved. The differential treatment of facades provides a dynamic quality to the building that embraces the capabilities of wood as both a cladding and structural material.
Fifth Place: Resurgence
Student: Allie Wickman
Faculty: Uthman Olowa & Ellen Grimes
School: School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Project Overview: Resurgence intends to celebrate the rich musical history of Chicago’s West Woodlawn neighbourhood during the Jazz Age while enabling a reemergence of the cultural hub that once existed at the historic site by introducing affordable living units for artists and a public library dedicated to making West Woodlawn’s history accessible to everyone.
Jury Comments: Resurgence is a considerate and sensitive design for the surrounding neighborhood. The massing of the floors provides an efficient way to maintain construction affordability. The simplicity and rationality of the design highlights the capabilities of mass timber to deliver a clean design aesthetic that draws on the prefabricated nature of the material.
Honorable Mention: bq.we
Students: Ana Bulacovschi, Ellis Donahue, Viktor Nakev & Martin Parra
Faculty: Philippe Baumann
School: Pratt Institute
Project Overview: Like medieval city walls—which functioned both as protective city enclosure and as foundations against which wood-frame residential buildings were built—bq.we proposes to repurpose the existing foundation and retaining walls of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway in New York City to serve as a foundation for a new lattice structure. A green thoroughfare, skate park, bike lanes, studios, and public spaces occupy the lower levels with residential units above.
Jury Comments: bq.we is a futuristic design that uses timber as city infill. This project is unique in that it highlights the importance of common infrastructure in the functionality of urban spaces and imagines how mass timber can contribute in a central way.
Honorable Mention: Home Run
Students: Andy Vo, Eli Melendez & Sara Lee
Faculty: Michael Hamilton
School: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Project Overview: The project questions how we might re-purpose the existing Oakland Coliseum to promote community interaction through porosity and density. The modular CLT design is grafted onto the existing structure to create a series of third spaces. Residential units are arranged around circulation voids that echo the experience of traveling to the grandstands at a baseball game. The third space voids that are created allow for daylight and ventilation and promote community growth and gathering.
Jury Comments: Home Run is a captivating design for using CLT to build upon an existing stadium. The marriage of modular timber stepped housing units with the large-scale form of the stadium showcases how timber can work as a key infill material in atypical spaces to create a variety of development opportunities. The overall design is a unique approach on how stadiums could be reused.