This building is both an experiment and a research instrument. Just as biologists use a microscope to study organisms, architects will use this structure to study buildings. In other words, the project involves a simple but futuristic building to host research on the future of buildings. // Research will include automated construction, embedded sensors, feedback systems, geothermal wells, energy harnessing, and wall and roof prototypes. Projects will involve interdisciplinary collaboration between architects, engineers, computer scientists, and artists. // The building itself is also a research project on multiple levels. It involves a close study of natural and low-embodied energy materials. In particular, we worked with salvaged scaffolding boards, which are ubiquitous in construction, but they are typically discarded after a year as a rule-of-thumb, rather than inspected for problems such as warping or cracking. We used 900 scaffolding boards that would otherwise become waste. But more than offering a sustainable material, this approach allowed us to see architectural materials in a new way. Our experiments led us to emphasize revealing natural variation in boards rather than suppressing it with a one-size-fits-all or lowest-common-denominator approach. We began to read how each board comes from a different tree with a different history of growth. This allowed us to process each board according to its properties and create a unique facade. But more fundamentally, this allowed us to develop a new perspective on buildings as a temporary synthesis of materials, energy, and labor—connected to other formations before and after the life of the building.