Author: Kati Warner

Anddddd… we’re back!

The last time you checked in with the Deborah’s Home team, we had just finished the main structure on the Pod Mock-up and wrapped up our first Executive Review. Since then, we’ve been busier than a bee preparing for the renowned Pig Roast, final Executive Review, and graduation. (Yup… it got four degrees hotter in here.)

Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) Pod

We finished the entire structure of the CLT Pod back in April. Fast forward to the end of May, and we’ve now sheathed the stick-framed “gaskets” and applied our vapor barrier, Adhero Solitex 3000.

Right now, we’re focused on detailing all the flashing conditions that will eventually carry over into the larger house (Deborah’s Home). The pod continues to act as our full-scale testing ground for exterior insulation details, weatherproofing strategies, and figuring out how to keep these assemblies simple and replicable for the real project.

Deborah’s Home

Now, you might be thinking, “Shouldn’t that mockup be farther along by now?”

Wellllll… slow your roll. We’ve got to keep both the pod and the house moving at the same time! And things have been nonstop around here with the end-of-semester lineup of events.

Starting off strong, we spent all of April preparing for Pig Roast and Executive Review II. For Pig Roast, we went all in with full-scale spray-painted floor plans to help show the scale of the house and the transition between structural systems. Alongside those, we displayed drawings of our floor plans, building sections, and construction details that have been simmering all year long.

It was incredibly exciting to finally share the work with friends, family, and the wider Rural Studio community. Between a full day of presentations, questionable jokes, and comically dramatic walk-throughs, we couldn’t have been prouder of the progress made this year or more grateful for all the people who helped guide us along the way.

After Pig Roast, a quick celebration was definitely due… but then it was right back to work because Executive Review II was drawing nigh. We worked tirelessly to prepare for another successful review alongside Justin Miller, Rusty Smith, Emily McGlohn, Stephen Long, John Marusich, and Andrew Freear. Discussions focused on construction sequencing, environmental impacts on the site, and exploring different CLT manufacturers and their products.

And after surviving the beautiful chaos of Pig Roast and Executive Review, we headed back to Auburn one last time…as students.

Drum roll please…

We graduated college!

A weekend full of celebrations, reunions, and seeing old friends marked the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. Don’t worry—we’ll still be hanging around Hale County and reporting on our progress.

Until next time,


Deborah’s Home team, newly graduated “Leftovers”

Our minds and hands have been hard at work whether we’ve been hundreds of miles apart or near enough to smell the aroma of a teammate’s coffee. Over the holidays, the team continued refining the design remotely, focusing on how stair placement affects the floor plan, site orientation, and the way spaces interact inside and outside the house. We tested multiple plan variations and studied how circulation shapes daily life in the home. Even spread across different time zones, we stayed connected through Zoom meetings with our professors and kept pushing the research forward.

During this time, we also deepened our study of balloon framing and explored storage opportunities within the stick-frame portions of the building. These investigations helped clarify how cross-laminated timber (CLT) and conventional framing can work together as a cohesive system.

At the start of the new year, we returned to Auburn to fabricate another CLT test panel. In other words, we’re making our own cross-laminated timber to test. Our goal was to produce four panels in total, but the process came with an important lesson: moisture matters. Much of the dimensional lumber had a higher moisture content than acceptable, forcing us to pause fabrication and wait another week before making the remaining panels.

Our four CLT test panels measure 4 ft. x 4 ft. and designed to let us study the strength of a panel’s middle layer. Each panel uses 1x4s on the outer layers and 2x6s in the core. The thicker inner layer provides greater screw depth and increased load capacity, making the panel more viable for residential construction. The four variations we’ve made test differences in weight, material cost, fabrication time, and structural performance when the gaps are introduced. Our panels have been sent to Auburn’s engineering department for structural testing, and we are currently awaiting results. We also plan to fabricate one more test panel, this time pushing the limits of the CLT press with a much larger panel.

Following “Neckdown” Week (our largely all hands on deck maintenance week), the project entered a period of intensive feedback and review. Architects and educators joined us regularly to critique and challenge the work. Marlon Blackwell joined remotely and pushed us to test double-height spaces organized around the CLT stairs. Kiel Moe guided research into alternative strategies for the stick-built portions of the house. Hank Koning and Julie Eizenberg of Koning Eizenberg Architects encouraged us to further explore maximizing CLT while minimizing conventional framing.

With continued testing, fabrication, and design refinement, the project is steadily evolving. Our build location has changed to a similar site about 5 minutes down the road, so we’ll also revisit specific site considerations. Each review and experiment brings us closer to a clear, buildable system for this Home.

While waiting for test panel results and better weather, pod construction kept moving. We triple-checked connection details with structural engineer Joe Burns and finalized a very full Lowe’s cart with all the fasteners and hardware needed for both the CLT and glulam pods. On site, we installed vapor barrier tape across the slab, setting things up so the CLT walls can go up next. The drawings are tight, the materials are ready, and the pods are moving into their next phase.

At this point, the drawings are tighter, the materials are ordered, and the slabs are ready. The next phase is less talking and more building. We like that part.

Three and a half months into the semester, the house team moved from early ideas into real testing. After wrapping up Halloween Review, we shifted quickly into workshops, mock-ups, and preparations for the end-of-semester fall review, better known as Soup Roast.

In parallel with design work, we began constructing living pod mock-ups that act as full-scale tests for our larger thesis project. Using glulam beams and cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels, we assembled walls, installed CLT sill plates, and worked through how these systems actually come together on site. Building at full scale helped ground our design decisions in the realities of construction.

Not everything moved according to plan. After completing our material cuts, a full week of rain forced us to pause exterior work to keep the CLT and glulam dry. While frustrating, the delay gave us time to slow down, double-check drawings, and work through the details of how the pod system is assembled.

Throughout this period, we benefited from feedback and guidance from visiting architects and consultants. Dan Wheeler helped us refine construction details, while Phil Szostak and Frank Harmon offered broader project critiques. We also participated in a drawing workshop with Frank Harmon in downtown Greensboro, using different techniques to observe and document a place deeply connected to Rural Studio.

At the center of our research is a key question: how can CLT work at a small, residential scale? Most CLT manufacturers produce large, thick panels intended for commercial buildings, often far more material than a modest home requires. Thin, accessible residential CLT does not currently exist on the market, but we have the opportunity to make it ourselves.

At Auburn University’s main campus, a new CLT press allows custom panels to be fabricated in-house. We will use this press to produce all of the CLT panels for Jessica’s Home. Preparing for this process required learning the full fabrication workflow, from milling and panel layup to adhesive application. Because the adhesive requires respirators, we traveled to Auburn to get fitted before fabricating a test panel.

Design work continued alongside fabrication prep. Between Halloween Review and Soup Roast, we refined floor plans and studied the relationship between CLT and conventional stick framing. Our goal is a repeatable system that uses CLT where it performs best as structure and interior finish, and uses stick framing where flexibility is needed for windows, doors, and mechanical systems.

At Soup Roast, we received valuable feedback from consultants including Kim Clements and Joe Schneider of JAS Design Build, Jake LaBarre of the Miller Hull Partnership, and our structural consultant Joe Burns. Their insights helped push both the research and design forward.

Following Soup Roast, we fabricated our first CLT test panel at Auburn with guidance from Joe Burns and Jake Elbrecht, assistant professor of building construction, along with shop manager Mark Hjeltness. This hands-on experience helped us better understand the precision, science, and craft required to make CLT panels, knowledge that will directly inform the construction of Jessica’s Home.

With testing underway and design continuing to evolve, the project is moving from research toward reality. More building, refining, and learning lies ahead.

Eight fresh faces rolled into Hale County this August, ready to trade Toomer’s Corner for pasture-lined roads. We wasted no time diving into the Rural Studio rhythm. Within days, we were deep in research, drawings, workshops, mock-ups, and then even more drawings.

As a full team of eight, we began designing and constructing two small living pods on the Rural Studio campus: dorms that will soon house two 3rd-year students each. These pods act as our full-scale mock-ups for the larger thesis projects to come. 

We were granted a palette of mass-timber materials: glulam beams, cross-laminated timber panels, tongue-and-groove decking, and wood fiber insulation. Because these materials function beautifully as both structure and interior finish, they pushed us toward an exciting conclusion: the insulation shouldn’t hide inside the wall cavity, it should live entirely on the exterior of the structure! The pods became our testing ground for how that system performs, and everything we learned from them is now informing the two larger thesis projects.

Then came the hardest and most memorable moment so far: forming two final teams to carry our research into real, buildable projects. What started as a regular afternoon meeting turned into a six-hour marathon of conversation, reflection, a few tears, lots of laughter, and a well-timed hot chocolate break. By 1 a.m., two teams of four finally emerged.

So, without further ado, meet the new house team. The crew behind Rural Studio’s next residential CLT house: Kati Warner from Huntsville, Alabama; Mac Harlow from Atlanta, Georgia; Julia Van Pelt from Columbus, Georgia; and Caitlin Ranheim from Brooklyn, New York .

This new house project will be a two-story, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home. But it’s also a deep dive into the possibilities of cross-laminated timber (CLT) at a residential scale. CLT is strong, precise, and beautiful, but it’s not often used for single-family homes. We’re hoping to change that industry standard. By experimenting with a small-scale modular panel system, we aim to make CLT more replicable, efficient, and responsive for the kinds of houses Rural Studio is known for.

Once the team officially came together, we had exactly one week to pull together a full presentation and costumes for the infamous Rural Studio Halloween Review. No pressure, right? We showed up as giant Kit-Kat bars, all connected inside one oversized wrapper, the wafers symbolizing the different layers of wood they are working with… haha get it? 

After the review, the idea of a manageable and thin “residential CLT” finally started to click. From there, the team jumped into workshops with consultants from David Baker Architects, got deep into lighting with Thomas Paterson from Lux Populi, and collected feedback on every thoughtful move in their design process. The team also was helped by visiting consultants: Mary Margaret Jones, Billie Tsien, and Elise Jaffe. And in all the in-between moments, they kept grinding design iterations. 

Stay tuned as our team continues designing, detailing, and ultimately building this next Rural Studio prototype. The work is just beginning, but the excitement is already through the roof (and soon enough, maybe the CLT panels will be too).