At A Glance
With timber as a renewable, carbon-friendly resource, Dustin Albright’s research focuses on different applications of prefabricated light-framing and mass timber systems, including those with cross-laminated timber (CLT). The use of timber in buildings positively impacts its carbon footprint, and, for South Carolina, it contributes to the state’s $21 billion forest products industry. As a founding member of Clemson University’s Wood Utilization + Design Institute, Albright’s work contributes to wood-based construction materials’ design advancements.
Bio
As an associate professor of architecture and founding member of the Wood Utilization + Design Institute, Albright looks at different applications of prefabricated light-framing systems and mass timber systems, including cross-laminated timber (CLT).
This work draws on the positive environmental benefits of wood, including its renewability and minimal carbon footprint. His research recognizes that these building systems represent a wider and diversified product stream for South Carolina’s $21 billion forest products industry.
Albright’s research and design work on prefabricated panelized light-framing systems led to the development of the Sim[PLY] building framing system. Developed in collaboration with other Clemson faculty and students, Sim[PLY] is designed to balance high-tech production technologies with low-tech material and assembly solutions. Utilizing interlocking plywood components fabricated using CNC machines and digital cut files, building assembly follows pictographic instructions and requires only manual tools, making the construction site simpler, safer and less energy-intensive. Receiving a patent in December 2018, uses for the system are plentiful, from affordable housing to disaster relief shelters and pop-up health care facilities to workforce housing.
Albright joined the University in Fall 2012 as a lecturer in the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities while also working for an architecture firm in Greenville, South Carolina. He moved into his role as a full-time professor in August 2014.
In addition to teaching and research, Albright is a licensed architect and works professionally on a range of project types with Hanbury, a multidisciplinary design firm based in Norfolk, Virginia.
Photos
Quotes
Our research within the Wood Utilization + Design Institute on mass timber projects, specifically products made from CLT (big wall panels and roof panels), is helping to reshape the way we think about mid-rise and high-rise building projects. Before, many of these larger buildings weren’t possible with wood as the main building material, but now with the research, it is increasingly possible.
