Nadya Mikhaylovskaya

A perfect catenary arch is able to span vast distances whether it is in tension or compression. However, we mostly reserve perfect tension for suspension bridges and rarely use it in occupiable structures. Timber in tension is almost as efficient as timber in compression but its tensile strength is rarely utilized. Can we take advantage of it and use wooden elements as cables?

Can something as environmentally and politically contentious as a data center coexist with its surroundings more harmoniously? While being very critical about data centers’ resource consumption, I wanted to approach this typology from an architectural and ecological standpoint. Data centers require tremendous amounts of energy, access to abundant water for cooling, available land, and cheap electricity.  A lot of sawmills are already well-located with the same considerations in mind. A new, hybrid building typology combines a data center with a wood kiln, redirecting flows of energy and matter. It makes use of by-products such as offcuts from the sawmill, heat from the data center and steam from the kiln.

Every year, Berkeley and Oakland cut down numerous urban trees to address structural damage or clear way for infrastructure. It’s challenging to turn urban trees into building materials because many of them are small and irregularly shaped. What if we could preserve beloved urban trees for the community by turning them into street utilities? Our proposal is to create street furniture by stacking small pieces of lumber that could be produced from a tree of any size – even branches leftover from regular pruning.