RE:TIMBER - THE KEYSTONE TIMBER FACTORY
prem PATEL
SCAD Savannah
This project explores the consequences of relying on a singular economic industry such as coal mining in West Virginia, I discovered that when an overinvested industry collapses, underdeveloped industries and local communities suffer in its aftermath. This project seeks to repair abandoned infrastructure and the physical remnants of the coal boom in order to revive West Virginia’s neglected secondary economy of timber processing. This project demonstrates the expansive potential of sustainable materials by developing an engineered timber manufacturing facility that uses its own products to construct and reinforce the architecture itself, simultaneously preserving and producing. The factory becomes both the manufacturing engine and the product on display, illustrating how a regenerative material can mend industrial ruins while generating long term, sustainable economic growth.