Advanced Housing Research Center
America needs durable, affordable, and energy-efficient housing. In response to this need, the Advanced Housing Research Center was established at the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, in Madison, Wisconsin.
Forest Products Laboratory has been involved in wood-frame housing research since 1910 and has long been recognized as a world leader in such housing-related areas as engineered wood products and structures, moisture control, material design and performance, coatings and finishes, adhesives, wood preservation, and composites. Many of the materials and technologies currently used in wood-frame housing were developed through basic research at Forest Products Laboratory in cooperation with industry, academia, and government. To move new technologies into use, Forest Products Laboratory has also established strong links to industry and has played an active role in technology transfer and in the development of codes and standards.
Research at the Advanced Housing Research Center evaluates technology needed for both new and existing housing and encompasses all types of residential structures in which wood or wood-based products are used as primary or secondary building components. Emphasis is on the improved use of traditional wood products, recycled and engineered wood composite materials, durability, moisture control, natural disaster resistance, and an improved living environment.
The Center's research focuses primarily on the housing structure and practical technologies that can be readily adopted by homebuilders, industry, and consumers. The Advanced Housing Research Center also cooperates with partners in areas involving the latest theories and ideas in resource management, including water conservation and landscaping.
Housing research at the Advanced Housing Research Center is facilitated and coordinated through both internal and external partners. The Center has relied heavily on partnerships and alliances with universities, industry, consumers, and other government agencies, including the following:
Coalition for Advanced Wood Structures (CAWS) brings together universities, industry and government to improve the economy and performance of all types of wood structures, especially housing, non-residential buildings and transportation structures. Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH), which was a decade-long government-industry partnership run by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, to accelerate the development and implementation of new housing technologies.
Research on wood-frame housing has been integral to the research program at the Forest Products Laboratory since 1910. To further these efforts, Forest Products Laboratory established the Advanced Housing Research Center in 2001.
The Advanced Housing Research Center has grown beyond its initial emphasis on cooperation between federal agencies to include a wide range of both public and private cooperators.
Forest Products Laboratory has constructed two full-scale structures for research and educational activities: the Research Demonstration House and the Carriage House. Both structures allow researchers to conduct housing-related studies in an applied setting, extending knowledge obtained in laboratory modeling environments.
The Research Demonstration House and the Carriage House have expanded Forest Products Laboratory collaborations with industry, academia, and other government entities.
The first full-scale housing structure at Forest Products Laboratory was built in the late 1930s to evaluate moisture distribution and temperature gradients in wood-framed walls. Interestingly, the Research Demonstration House and Carriage House are located where the original landowner's farmhouse and outbuildings stood prior to construction of the current Forest Products Laboratory main building in 1932.
Please keep in mind that these structures were designed and built to represent a "typical" cold-climate structure for research purposes, not a "perfect" structure. Also, the Forest Products Laboratory housing research program is dynamic. Changes occur periodically that affect the nature of the research and the appearance of the structures. On behalf of all the partners and many Forest Products Laboratory employees who developed and continue to work on the Research Demonstration House and the Carriage House, we thank you and invite your questions and comments.