BSCI Students Explore Construction in the UK and Europe

Historic Conservation in the United Kingdom

McWhorter Endowed Chair and School Head Richard Burt and Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Chair Lauren Redden led seven students on a week-long tour of the UK in May, touring sites like Old Town Edinburgh, Loch Lomond, Stonehenge and Big Ben. As a partnership with the Auburn Honors College, the interdisciplinary group represented the Building Science, Environmental Design and Mechanical Engineering programs, allowing the students to discuss heritage conservation from technical, cultural and design perspectives.

“I hope students walked away with a deeper appreciation for how the built environment tells the story of a society—its values, struggles and aspirations,” Redden said. “By standing in the presence of centuries-old structures, they experienced history not as something distant, but as something alive and deeply relevant.”

BSCI student Redmond Smith said his favorite part of the trip was touring London’s financial district, discussing construction costs and durations of significant contemporary buildings like The Gherkin—as well as learning more about the nation’s historic construction through different student presentations on protected buildings.

Beck Stallworth, who will be a senior in the BSCI program this fall, noted how much the UK’s construction industry is shaped by its history and the need to preserve buildings that have stood for hundreds of years.

“It gave me a deep appreciation for the quality of workmanship and materials that allowed these structures to last so long,” Stallworth said. “As a BSCI student, it was eye-opening to see how construction practices must adapt when working within or around historic buildings, especially when it comes to preservation regulations, materials sourcing and structural limitations.”

Mass Timber in Nordic and Alpine Europe

Fifteen BSCI thesis students traveled around Europe’s Alpine and Nordic region for five weeks under the supervision of faculty members Paul Holley, Wes Collins and Alan Bugg, visiting Vienna, Munich, Zurich, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki.

Professor Holley, who is also the Director of the Center for Construction Innovation and Collaboration, said that in addition to visiting jobsites and meeting with contractors, designers and manufacturers, the students gained insight into mass timber components and installation methods.

“Building with laminated and cross-laminated wood products is becoming more common in Europe and is now also starting to gain traction in the U.S.,” Holley said. “This is a great opportunity for them to learn much about this emerging shift in building structures.”

To see mass timber construction in action, the students toured the Stora Enso CLT Mill in Ybbs, Austria, Södra CLT mill and the World of Volvo—a Henning Larsen-designed CLT museum—in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The study abroad trip wrapped up the thesis students’ Auburn experience, as many of the trip’s participants returned home to graduate and start their careers.

“As with other Building Science study abroad trips, these students also have many indirect opportunities by way of learning how to travel to and within different countries, experiencing different cultures, norms, cuisine and economies,” Holley said. “It’s a great way for them to better understand the global marketplace, including people, companies and governments in other places.”