Conversation Plinth: Indiana Hardwood CLT Project

The Conversation Plinth is the First Hardwood CLT structure constructed in the US. The winning proposal for Exhibit Columbus, located in midwestern architecture mecca Columbus, Indiana pays homage to J Irwin Miller and aims to celebrate the community of Columbus in the Main plaza of the city. Its form takes cues from the conversation pit in the living room in the Miller House, as well as the plinths that elevate the important landmarks immediately surrounding the site—the library designed by I. M. Pei, the First Christian Church designed by Saarinen church, and the Large Arch by Henry Moore. The installation offers a place for the community to gather and converse, and elevates people, both literally and metaphorically.

The installation is made of a hi-tech engineered timber product called CLT, or Cross Laminated Timber. Although softwood CLT already exists in the US, hardwood CLT, native and abundant in Indiana, does not. The Conversation Plinth is construction from the first ever Commercial Pressing of Hardwood CLT here in the US a research and development effort led by IKD with project partners CLT manufacturer Smartlam and timber engineer Bensonwood. IKD was awarded a 2017 wood innovation grant by the United States Forest Service to develop this material innovation and was the only Architecture firm to be awarded out of 114 national applicants.

The installation and material development is intended to be a catalyst for a new timber industry by upcycling low-value hardwood that are extracted from regional forests. The proposal aims to jumpstart and accelerate the development and use of hardwood CLT fabricated from parts of logs harvested from Indiana forests that can currently only be used to produce low value wood products .This has the potential to initiate a cascade of effects: job growth in rural forestry and manufacturing, diversifying hardwood lumber markets, higher forest land value, and improved forest management practices to reduce wildfires and encourage biodiversity leading to an abatement of climate change.

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