Auburn Engineering partners with U.S. Air Force to develop mass timber military housing prototypes
Published: Aug 17, 2026 12:50 PM
By Dustin Duncan
David Roueche, left, and Kadir Sener stand inside Auburn’s Advanced Structural Engineering Laboratory, where researchers will test mass timber designs for deployable U.S. Air Force housing.
Auburn engineers are working with the U.S. Air Force to redesign deployable military housing using mass timber, with the goal of creating temporary barracks-style structures that can be assembled faster and perform better in cold-weather environments.
Led by Auburn Engineering, the project combines structural design, materials testing and prototype development with architecture and building science expertise from Auburn’s College of Architecture, Design and Construction.
Battelle, an applied science and technology organization, is partnering with the Air Force to build prototypes.
Jim Davidson, professor of civil and environmental engineering, is the project’s principal investigator. David Roueche, the Gottlieb Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Kadir Sener, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering; Jake Elbrecht, assistant research professor in the McWhorter School of Building Science; and Kiel Moe, professor of practice in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture, are co-principal investigators and members of the Auburn Mass Timber Collaborative (AMTC).
The work focuses on improving structures traditionally built with light wood-frame construction, similar to conventional residential framing. While effective, that approach can require several days of on-site assembly and additional measures to withstand harsh climates.
Roueche said the Air Force needs temporary housing that can be transported, assembled and occupied quickly. Mass timber gives the team a way to meet that need by shifting more work into prefabrication, reducing on-site assembly time and improving thermal performance for cold-weather deployments.
Existing light wood-frame versions can require four or five people working eight- to 10-hour days over four or five days to build one structure — roughly 160 to 200 person-hours, Roueche said.
“With prefabrication, we are shifting some of that work away from the site,” Roueche said. “When shelter is critically needed, the actual assembly time should be much less.”
One of the central engineering challenges is finding the right balance between strength, efficiency and deployability. The structures must be durable enough for demanding environments without being overbuilt or difficult to transport.
That has required researchers to look beyond simply replacing conventional framing with mass timber. Standard cross-laminated timber, or CLT, may be stronger and thicker than needed for this type of deployable structure, Roueche said.
“Standard CLT is almost overkill for this application,” Roueche said. “It provides more strength than we need, so part of the challenge is figuring out how to use mass timber more efficiently.”
The team is evaluating designs intended to improve structural performance while also protecting insulation inside the assembly, an important consideration for cold-weather use. Testing in Auburn’s Advanced Structural Engineering Laboratory will help researchers verify the strength, stiffness and overall behavior of those designs.
According to Elbrecht, a unique challenge in designing and constructing temporary housing is what happens at its end-of-life.
"Air Force operations demand flexibility, and fixed housing impedes future redeployment," he said. "Designing temporary housing for disassembly and reuse accelerates redeployment and reduces long-term cost. Investigating structural performance, thermal performance and component reuse together reveals how these priorities compete and are weighed against one another in design decisions."
Roueche said the project gives Auburn an opportunity to highlight its partnership with the Air Force while demonstrating how multiple disciplines can contribute to a real-world military need.
“This is a fantastic opportunity to showcase a great partnership with the Air Force and mass timber,” Roueche said.
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