The program launched this summer with a cohort of two students, both of whom are serving as graduate teaching assistants for technology-based and studio courses, as well as graduate research assistants on extramurally funded grants. The students’ work is compensated through a stipend and tuition waiver, helping to make graduate studies more accessible and affordable. The program has the capacity to include 8-12 students and will begin recruiting its first full cohort this fall.
Led by Shanks with Architecture Professors of Practice Tom Chung and Kiel Moe, the interdisciplinary instructional team includes Landscape Architecture Graduate Chair and Associate Professor Emily Knox; Gottleib Associate Professor David Roueche from the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering; Associate Professor Yucheng Peng from the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment; and Assistant Research Professor Jake Elbrecht from the McWhorter School of Building Science.
“Mass timber design is, by definition, integrative. It doesn’t naturally lend itself to the conventional separation of disciplines where an architect designs a building and hands it over to the contractor who coordinates with the fabricator,” Shanks explained. “Auburn’s degree program mirrors the interdisciplinary nature of the industry.”
In addition to the collaboration between architects, builders and engineers, the program weaves in conversations with forestry experts in order to maintain the research’s resilience parameters.
The program relies on the world-renowned expertise of its faculty members, helping to establish Auburn University as a southeast hub for mass timber research and education.
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