A CLT McMansion
Kitsch and Chicsupervised by Jennifer Bonner and Hanif Kara
Location: New York City
Date: 2021
In America, the dominant typology of single-family housing is Type V wood frame construction. 2 x 4’s framing out generic homes. A CLT McMansion questions the potentials of introducing a fresh take on an old material, wood, to redefine the way housing could be constructed. The project recreates the kitschy American McMansion façade using cross-laminated timber while exhibiting a contemporary cross-laminated timber façade on the back. The contemporary façade reads as an oversized framing where the CLT has become the 2x4, resembling a transition from old to new. The house utilized the mass customizable panelized nature of CLT to create a series of marching walls to construct the house. A series of Booleans are then routed into the panels to beginning linking and creating new spaces. Cross-laminated timber allows us to embrace the nostalgia of wood while advancing into contemporary technologies and construction.