Light on Wood - by Susan H Jones (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Timber is
not only a sustainable material, it also creates warm, welcoming, sheltering
spaces that offer an emotional quality to their users. Light on Wood is
a very personal story about how to design and build with mass timber. Author
Susan H. Jones, a native of the Pacific Northwest with its seemingly endless
forests, founded atelierjones in Seattle some 20 years ago. This pioneering
practice has since made a name for itself by working to decarbonize our built
environment. It carefully investigated the behavior of wood in case of fire, in
an effort to rewrite the code, and undertook life cycle analyses to further the
body of research on timber. Changes in building codes have since helped to
reestablish this traditional building material in many countries. But the
office also designed many beautiful buildings, often developed in cooperation
with local communities.

• Projects
  shown include the Marian Chapel in Seattle, the First Congregational Church in
  Bellevue, Washington, and the Roundhouse in Greenville, California, for the
  people of the Maidu
• 
  Practical, hands-on survey with many details and construction photos
• 
  Lavishly illustrated and attractive cloth-bound volume

About the Author

Susan H. Jones, FAIA, is founder and Principal Architect of Seattle-based atelierjones.
Devoted to disrupting 20th century design and construction methodologies, her
award-winning, all-woman owned and woman-led architecture firm drives new
lower-carbon pathways within architecture and construction at scale. Advancing
lower-carbon prefabricated mass timber systems, for over a decade, the firm has
completed over a dozen mass timber projects, and has designed over twenty, from
institutional buildings to large-scale urban housing to urban infill housing,
single-family homes and rural/WUI mass timber modular housing.

A
third-generation native of the Pacific Northwest, Susan grew up in Bellingham,
Washington, She earned her B.A from Stanford in Philosophy, and her M.Arch from
Harvard GSD and is Affiliate Associate Professor of Architecture at the
University of Washington, Susan is a Fellow of the American Institute of
Architects, was awarded the AIASeattle Gold Medal in 2023 and the Women in
Architecture award by Architectural Record in 2024. Susan lives in Seattle, WA.