Category Archives: Wood, Paper & Green Building

It is suspected that synthetic fibres contribute in a critical way to polluting our environment with microplastics. Now fabric manufacturers have reacted to this problem and introduced a number of new solutions to the market. Solid and insoluble synthetic polymers – i.e. plastics – that are smaller than five millimeters are called microplastics. Though they are barely visible to the naked eye, they still threaten our environment. …Italian fabric manufacturer Pontetorto presented the world’s first fleece fabric with a roughened inside last year whose fibres are biodegradable, even in seawater. Thus, Biopile is the first fleece fabric whose fibre web does not secrete dangerous microplastics because it consists to 100 percent of the wood cellulose fibre Tencel by Austrian textile and cellulose fibre producer Lenzing Group. Tencel is biodegradable and decomposes in any environment in about 90 days without residue.

HCM CITY — Mexico and Canada will be promising markets for Việt Nam’s wood and furniture products when the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans–Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) takes effect in early 2019, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Deputy Minister Trần Quốc Khánh said exports to Canada were worth over US$129 million last year and are expected to top $140 million this year. “The CPTPP will open opportunities for products such as wood flooring and bars to Canada because the market will immediately scrap the import tariff of 3.5 per cent when the agreement comes into effect. “Products such as plywood, picture frames, door frames and especially furniture will also have an opportunity because import tariffs of between 6 per cent and 9.5 per cent will be eliminated as soon as the agreement comes into effect.

The Sweden Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai will feature tree houses as part of a design to recreate the Nordic forests of Scandinavia in the desert. Designed by a team of architects from France, Italy, and Sweden, the pavilion will blend western and Islamic art styles by incorporating Swedish nature with Middle Eastern mashrabiyas [a type of projecting oriel window enclosed with carved wood latticework located on the second story of a building or higher]. Stockholm-based Alessandro Ripellino Architects, Studio Adrien Gardère, and Luigi Pardo Architetti are the companies behind the successful design. Hundreds of tree trunks will rise from the ground floor, giving visitors the impression they are walking through a forest. Some of these trunks will support raised offices and meeting rooms, making them look like three houses.

A three week visit of five countries which included judging at the 2018 World Architecture Festival in Amsterdam and presentations in Geneva to the PEFC General Assembly, have convinced me that fundamental change is well underway. Two key issues stand out from observations and learnings from my recent travels. The first is that it is no longer palatable or responsible, to use materials that are unlikely to be locally recycled, reused, or that don’t address life cycle issues, resulting in waste in landfill, anywhere in the world. The second issue is that implemented “design and construction quality” offers fundamental change to our living and working environments. …Engineered timber products such as cross laminated timber, Glue Laminated timber and Laminated Veneer Lumber offer great hope for a transformation within the Australian environment. 

The World Green Building Council has some tips about ventilation, insulation and lighting. As part of the World Climate Summit at COP24, the World Green Building Council has issued a Healthier Homes, Healthier Planet guide. It is really a big infographic with some good general advice and lots of links. The guide takes a combination of the latest research into air quality, thermal and acoustic comfort and lighting and translates it into simple, low-cost and practical strategies to make the home environment healthier for both people and planet. …Perhaps my biggest reservation is based on the fact that so many of the air quality issues come from pollution caused by transportation, but there is no discussion about urban form, about density, about building size. …Generally, outside of what I think is a bias towards glassy products, this guide is a great introduction to the essentials of ventilation, insulation and good lighting.

Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and Jenni Haukio

HELSINKI–Finland has always drawn on its vast forests for inspiration, and the country can now lay claim to fashion worthy of admiration by design and nature lovers worldwide. A diverse team at Aalto University has designed and produced an evening gown made of Finnish birch trees, using a sustainable technology called Ioncell. Jenni Haukio, spouse of Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, donned the sustainable yet elegant gown to begin the holiday season and mark the Nordic nation’s 101 years of independence at Helsinki’s Presidential Palace. From fibre to yarn and fabric to final product, a diverse team of researchers, experts, and students made the gown a reality on the Aalto University campus. The Ioncell process, developed by Aalto University and the University of Helsinki, aims to change the way we make clothes.

SAPPORO, Japan – Three months have passed since a strong earthquake hit Hokkaido in early September. In disaster-affected areas, an increasing number of people are using large numbers of trees felled by landslides. The central government, Hokkaido government, local forestry cooperatives and paper-manufacturing companies plan to cooperate with each other to use fallen trees, such as by making the shift to renewable energies by turning them into fuel for stove heaters and biomass power generation, as well as making paper and lumber from them. Through such efforts, they aim to achieve eco-friendly reconstruction from the earthquake. …Of the fallen trees, those in good condition will be processed into paper and lumber. Others that cannot be used as they are will be processed into wood pellets or turned into wood chips for use as fuel in biomass power generation.

Wood industry players in Vietnam are expected to make leaps and bounds to help make Vietnam become the world’s second largest interior furniture exporter, after China, within the next 7-8 years, given that the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), are to come into effect next year. …Speaking at the seminar, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh said the ongoing trade war between the United States and China has had significant impacts. But if the two agreements are translated into reality next year …furniture products labeled “Made in Viet Nam” would enter EU markets, as well as new markets, such as Canada and Mexico, and local furniture companies might receive more orders.

Frédéric Pichelin

In an interview with SciTech Europa, the department’s Professor Frédéric Pichelin [Bern University of Applied Sciences] discusses both the applications of wood-based products and many of the challenges that technologies are facing, and describes some of the work that is taking place which, hopefully, will enable wood to compete with other materials such as concrete and steel. …With new technologies emerging to help enhance many of the material’s properties – including fire resistance and strength – these potential application areas are expanding. …We will be exploring solutions to the pre-fabrication challenges, of course, while we will also be investigating the full use of wood biomass not only in the construction sector, which is important, but in all sectors. We hope that wood will come to replace some petroleum-based plastics for insulating foam used in composites in the aerospace industry, for example. 

Griffith University researchers are putting timber to the test to see if tall wooden buildings are the way forward for our cities.  For the first time in the world, the behaviour of mass timber buildings to resist the loss of a main structural element has been investigated using hi-tech laboratory equipment at the Gold Coast campus.  The demonstration …will lead to a better understanding of the behaviour of timber buildings and eventually inform the improvement of current design rules and yield safer buildings. Associate Professor Benoit Gilbert from Griffith’s School of Engineering and Built Environment is part of the team testing engineered solid wood products, such as Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL), Glue laminated timber (Glulam) and Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) and their capabilities in collapse resistance.  Reaching timber building heights of five to six storeys has been made possible thanks to products such as these.