The Littleton Trials

The Littleton Trials is an ongoing architectural investigation into mass timber construction in New England. The work investigates impacts at multiple scales: forest, building, and material. These scales are correlated with modes of inquiry: harvesting and milling, assembly, and thermal testing, respectively. Two 112-sf huts have been constructed, and a third exists as a pile of drying, site-milled lumber. The long-term use is to monitor the capacities for environmental control intrinsic to mass timber techniques. Different species and construction logics are deployed in each hut, each initially tested for baseline thermal performance. Long-term testing is both objective and subjective. An array of temperature and relative humidity sensors will monitor the internal environment and build multi-seasonal data. For a more humanist understanding, invited guests will stay overnight in the huts and record their comfort experiences. The third ‘use’ of the project is to investigate the possibilities of matching the needs of small-scale, multi-species forestry with the needs of architecture