Editorial Staff

Plant a single species in rows, on a schedule, at a set density, and you’re not growing a forest — you’re manufacturing one. Eastern white pine makes the difference obvious. Push it toward a uniform, printable output and you get the opposite result. White pine planted in dense, even-aged stands is the textbook target for […] The post You Can’t Print a Forest appeared first on NELMA.

When Jesse and Betsy went looking for more space on their Portland, Maine property, zoning gave them one option: build on the same long, narrow footprint as the rotting pool house it would replace. Six years after renovating their 1960s ranch house, the couple wanted a versatile studio that could serve every member of the […] The post Small Footprint, Full Warmth: Eastern White Pine Anchors a Portland Studio appeared first on NELMA.

Walk through any architecture publication right now and wood construction means one thing: mass timber. Cross-laminated panels, exposed glulam beams, landmark buildings photographed at golden hour. It’s a compelling story, and the engineering behind it is real. But it’s not how most wood buildings get built. Light-frame construction is still the workhorse of the American […] The post Mass Timber Gets the Press. Light-Frame Does the Work. appeared first on NELMA.

Every building material makes an argument about where it comes from. Concrete says it came from industry. Steel says it came from somewhere far away and very hot. Wood says it came from here. When Calgary-based Little Giant described their Forest Studio on Vancouver Island as drawing on the “spirit of a treehouse,” they weren’t […] The post The Only Material That Already Belongs appeared first on NELMA.

In Freeport, Maine, students and researchers now gather in a building that was designed to do more than shelter them — it was designed to teach them something just by existing. The Smith Center for Education and Research at Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment opened last fall as the campus centerpiece of […] The post Surround Students In Wood appeared first on NELMA.