The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) School of Forest, Fisheries & Geomatics Sciences (SFFGS) has partnered with architects and contractors to build a temporary 400-square-foot pavilion on UF’s main campus.
The pavilion, called the MASS Haptic project and located between the J. Wayne Reitz Union and McCarty Hall, will be made entirely of Southern Yellow Pine, all grown in Florida and Alabama.
The posts that support the structure came from UF’s Austin Cary Forest, and the roof panels are made of mass timber, which is compressed layers of cut lumber.
Each roof panel is made of five layers of cross-laminated timber (CLT), meaning each layer of lumber is perpendicular to the one beside it. This process makes the panels impact-resistant, and with the right design, such panels can structurally behave like concrete, according to Shawna Meyer, a founding principal of the Miami-based architecture firm Atelier Mey.
Each roof panel weighs about 4,500 pounds, according to Daniel Wirth, owner/operator of Minimal Impact Engineering, the subcontractor for the project.
Minimal Impact, subcontracted by the general contractor Walbridge, has volunteered its time for this project, charging only for the equipment.
Meyer said the structure will have QR codes posted when it is complete, to encourage those who enjoy its shade to also consider the forestry, milling and manufacturing processes.
This, Meyer said, is why the structure is called the MASS Haptic project—haptics being the science of understanding through touch, and the pavilion is an example of an environmentally conscious building.
“This… is a demonstration pavilion,” Meyer said. “So that people can inhabit it, see the mass timber, and understand the story is really about ‘forest to building.’”
The pavilion is envisioned to be a site for outdoor lectures, meet-ups, relaxation and game-day festivals.
After two or three years, the university plans to take the pavilion down and replace it with a new building to house all of UF’s natural resources programs, from SFFGS, to Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, to the Florida Extension Sea Grant program and others.
Scott Sager, assistant director and forester for the SFFGS, said the new building would bring together a group of programs that are currently scattered across UF’s sprawling campus.
“It’s a real investment by the university in supporting the natural resource programs and giving them opportunities,” Sager said in an interview. “We really look forward to the fact that, when that happens, there’ll be opportunities for more collaboration and collision and engagement.”
Sager said the building to come has already been through part of the university approval process, with some conceptual design work done. The building is to be 200,000 square feet, using the same mass timber material as the pavilion.
The building would be the first on UF’s campus to use the sustainable, low-carbon impact method, and according to Wirth, on the leading edge of the industry in the United States.
Wirth said Minimal Impact is one of only a few mass timber engineering companies, as the industry has a much larger presence in Europe. Minimal Impact’s 16-person crew has traveled across the United States for multiple projects, large and small.
“We like to be part of the movement,” Wirth said in an interview. “Every small mass timber project is [exciting.]”