Clark O’Bryan has lived and studied across the world: suburban Chicago, London, Paris, coastal
Ireland, Norway, Estonia, and among the hills and hollows of his rural home in East Warren, Vermont. Trained as a dry stone waller through the The Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain︎︎︎ (DSWA I) and graduate of Middlebury College (BA Architecture) in 2023, he was awarded a post-bacc Thomas J. Watson Fellowship︎︎︎︎︎︎ to research the vernacular building traditions in climates analogous to the northeastern United States, those materials, techniques and skills proven capable (over millennia) of withstanding the environmental conditions expected of his home-region in the future. Studies across stonemasonry, boat-building, thatching, paper-making, blacksmithing and earthen plastering, his research eventually brought him to rural Okayama Prefecture, Japan, where he encountered the work of carpentry company Somakosha︎︎︎︎︎︎ and was immediately, deeply impressed. Now apprentice at this company, his research continues: How is the knowledge, skill and practice of traditional craftsmanship relevant in a changing climate? This is the essential question which motivates his current apprenticeship in Japan and future work as a craftsman.
In the coming century, the region is projected to change at an accelerated rate. Shifts in mean temperature, humidity, severity and frequency of rainfall events, duration of freeze-free periods per year, will displace current distributions of plant species, pressured by increased pestilence, and open room for emigrating, primarily southern-originating, species. The region will thus become a home for climate migrants of many sorts. As new human populations flock seeking refuge, environmental conservation of natural resources and rural and urban development will need to be maintained simultaneously. From where, then, will this development be sourced?
By traveling to regions of the world with climates expected of the northeastern United States in the coming century, and working alongside traditional building craftspeople deeply embedded in the material origins and processes of their work, I sought to recover the materials and methods relevant to the changing ecological conditions of my home. It is my hope that, by listening to these traditional sources, practicing and refining a crafted touch on the land, I will be able to offer an approach to the question rooted in place, in my time, and most important, by hand. This is how I understand the essential directive of my future work as a craftsman.
Fellowship︎︎︎ (2023-2024)
The Thomas J. Watson Fellowship is a one-year grant for independent, purposeful, humanitarian research outside of the United States, awarded to ≈ 50 graduating seniors from select U.S. colleges and universities each year.Project︎︎︎ (2023-2024)
The northeastern United States is a borderland of multiple intersecting geologic, climatic and ecological regions. As a result, a diverse body of natural materials, biotic and abiotic, constitute the vibrant traditional, historical and contemporary resource economy and building culture.In the coming century, the region is projected to change at an accelerated rate. Shifts in mean temperature, humidity, severity and frequency of rainfall events, duration of freeze-free periods per year, will displace current distributions of plant species, pressured by increased pestilence, and open room for emigrating, primarily southern-originating, species. The region will thus become a home for climate migrants of many sorts. As new human populations flock seeking refuge, environmental conservation of natural resources and rural and urban development will need to be maintained simultaneously. From where, then, will this development be sourced?
By traveling to regions of the world with climates expected of the northeastern United States in the coming century, and working alongside traditional building craftspeople deeply embedded in the material origins and processes of their work, I sought to recover the materials and methods relevant to the changing ecological conditions of my home. It is my hope that, by listening to these traditional sources, practicing and refining a crafted touch on the land, I will be able to offer an approach to the question rooted in place, in my time, and most important, by hand. This is how I understand the essential directive of my future work as a craftsman.