Timber Town

LOCATION: Hialeah, FL

PROGRAM: Industrial Settlement

STATUS: Proposal

Timber Town is an artisan settlement designed to support a community of makers by educating them in the re-introduction of wood utilization in South Florida. By teaching artists how to use local renewable materials in practices ranging from timber joinery to wood-fired ceramics, Timber Town becomes a prototypical sustainable development. Timber Town’s mission is to increase the community (and state’s) tree count and overall health, while developing an industrial settlement that can pass on artisanal and environmentally crucial knowledge.

Timber Town is modeled off New Lanark, a historically successful industrial settlement in Scotland, where Robert Owen provided more than a business for his cotton mill workers. Owen provided the workers healthy and affordable lodging, food, education, health, and recreation- giving them a sustainable and affordable life worth living and working for. Similar to New Lanark, Timber Town will provide an urban program that provides a holistic live-work environment for the betterment of the internal and external community.

Timber Town uses reclaimed Lumber from South Florida in the form of NLT beams and columns and applies an adaptive re–use of the existing walls from the derelict industry facilities on the project site. Through the adoption of the existing masonry walls of the site plus the use of reclaimed timbers and stock steel products, Timber Town’s carbon footprint is reduced.