(Un)Build Kaleidoscope is presented through a collaboration between the independent research initiative Project (Un)Build and the University of Oregon Wood Lab. Bringing together two complementary approaches to circular timber construction, the installation transforms material research into a playful public experience.

Visitors of all ages are invited to rotate a series of oversized kaleidoscopes and encounter ever-changing reflections of the surrounding city. Familiar streets, people, and landscapes are fragmented and reassembled into shifting patterns of light, color, and movement, encouraging new ways of seeing the built environment.

The kaleidoscopes are housed within UO Wood Lab’s Tubular Timber elements and suspended within a strapped timber truss assembled using Project (Un)Build’s reversible construction system. Together, the two research initiatives explore design-for-disassembly at multiple scales: reversible timber structures and flat-packed wood tubes that can be rolled, unrolled, and reused. Through play and material innovation, (Un)Build Kaleidoscope engages the challenges of wood waste and climate change while imagining an architecture designed for continual reuse rather than disposal.

The project is made possible through the generous support of Sustainable Northwest Wood.