Cedar Stack is an installation designed by Ventulett NEXT Fellow Michael Stradley (@mt_stradley) and artist Katie Soule (@sadie_koule), and built with a small team of Georgia Tech students. Part sculptural object and part semi-enclosed resting space, Cedar Stack recasts a familiar building component – the 2x4 – in less familiar material, western red cedar. The relentless repetition of this everyday form accumulates into a spatial composition which engages body, sky, and site in unexpected ways.

The lumber used to construct the work, left free from glue or coatings and undamaged by the process of assembly, will be reused/upcycled after the duration of the installation at Goat Farm. Cedar Stack performs as both sculptural object and as a semi-enclosed porch: a pocket of space to gather or rest. The project builds upon an ongoing interest in the way design can reveal latent cultural meanings embedded in common materials and forms. It also makes use of a process-driven approach, leveraging modularity, prefabrication, and collective assembly (with architecture students from Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture) to achieve the rapid, site-responsive build. Cedar Stack asks how design can engage both a specific site and the public realm through subtle shifts in the everyday.

Architectural Pavilion | Western Red Cedar | 7.5’ x 7.5’ x 12’

The Goat Farm | Atlanta, GA | 2025

Design Team: Katie Soule & Michael Stradley

Build Team: Build Team: Michael Stradley, Katie Soule, Johnny Parrack, Michael Chick, Mallory Justis

Photo Credit: Wes McRae/Georgia Tech College of Design (imgs 1, 2, 6, 7)