Paper, Pulp, Plywood. Architecture and the Built Orders of Resource Extraction in Canada

Paper, Pulp, Plywood draws a diagram linking a company town centered on a paper mill, forest-inspired pavilions, a forestry headquarters, postwar plywood advertising, and protests in an old-growth forest. Through seven interconnected episodes, the book examines the production and consumption of tree-derived materials and the tensions they generate. It argues that postwar Canadian architectural culture was deeply shaped by the forestry industry, its resource extraction practices, and colonial legacies. By tracing how trees were transformed into standardized building materials, the book reveals how forestry reconfigured the built environment while profoundly altering forest ecologies and their social, cultural, and political worlds.

With a response by Pietro Cesari.

[publishers’ note]