Rice Pavilion

A new mass timber pavilion on Rice University’s campus is the product of Houston and Madrid-based architect Jesús Vassallo’s advanced elective course on contemporary mass timber. Structured as a mini-studio and funded by a grant from the USDA Forest Service, the course saw the students design a 35-foot-square structure. Timberlyne was commissioned to bring the pavilion’s layout and simplicity of the plan to life, which the students at Rice University conceptualized. The angle of each timber column erected demonstrated that the CLT has the capacity to stand in different directions, indicating that the material can bear more complex structures. This structure is supported by eight timber columns whose centers are each rotated between 20 and 35 degrees from the orthogonal.

• Architect: Rice Architecture
• Engineer: Tracy Truc Huynh
• GC: Forney Construction
• Completed: 2023

In The News:

• Mass Timber Pavilion at Rice University
• Construction finishes on a CLT pavilion designed by Rice Architecture students
• Faculty Work Mass Timber Pavilion

Photography courtesy of Jesus Vassallo; © Cesar Bejar