Category Archives: Wood, Paper & Green Building

London studio Waugh Thistleton Architects has built a hybrid cross-laminated-timberand steel office block next door to Dezeen’s London office alongside the Regent’s Canal. The six-storey building at 6 Orsman Road was created for Storey – developer British Land’s flexible workspace company – and contains 3,150 square metres of office. Waugh Thistleton Architects aimed to create a more sustainable, flexible building that could be adapted to the needs of its many tenants and could ultimately be demounted at the end of its life. “We wanted to make a super-low carbon building that is durable, adaptable and demountable,” Waugh Thistleton Architects co-founder Andrew Waugh told Dezeen. “6 Orsman Road has only two columns per space and no internal support walls, which means the developing businesses that will call the building home will be able to easily adapt in the building”. 

News of a 40-storey wooden office tower planned for Sydney, Aus. is proof that mass timber construction (MTC) is gaining increased global acceptance as an alternative to traditional construction methods.  Tall buildings built largely from MTC demonstrate a trend towards structures now being dubbed “ply-scrapers.”  Promoters of MTC have long been enthusiastic about the reduced carbon footprint made possible by using engineered wood to replace steel and concrete. …However, acceptance of MTC as a building material in large buildings, in either whole or in part, is not universal. Despite tests by safety authorities around the world, including Canada, concerns over fire resistance continue.  …Those reservations are shared by Lethbridge Professional Firefighters’ I.A.F.F. Local 237 president Warren Nelson.  “We have concerns with these large buildings solely being made of wood, and the potential for rapid fire-spread throughout these buildings.”

The CanopyStyle initiative has a new, powerful partner in the effort to end the use of Ancient and Endangered Forests in apparel fabrics — the world’s largest online retailer, Amazon. Amazon has just announced its timelined commitment to ensure that by 2022 all of the company’s private label clothing will not include “rayon or viscose derived from ancient and endangered forests, or from endangered species’ habitats or other controversial sources as defined by Canopy reports and tools”. …Teams at Amazon UK and Amazon US will be using the CanopyStyle Hot Button Report to inform their procurement decisions. Amazon will also be supporting the … use of recycled clothing to make new viscose fabrics, rather than … Ancient and Endangered Forests. …Canopy is working with hundreds of companies to [replace] 50% of tree fibre currently used in the viscose and packaging supply chains with Next Generation alternatives.

NEW ZEALAND — The Forest Owners Association says the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) announcement of ‘Building for Climate Change’ will mean more timber is used in New Zealand construction. FOA President Phil Taylor says he’s been waiting three years for the government to announce a wood preference, or wood first policy, for new government buildings, since it was part of the 2017 Labour Party Manifesto. “Even though the MBIE announcement, just out, doesn’t mention wood at all, the inevitable result of a government attempt to drive down the use of carbon emitting building materials, will mean more wood is used in construction overall.” “So, it’s potentially better than having ‘wood first’ which would have been restricted to just the government sector.” The MBIE announcement identifies a change in construction materials as one way to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings.  

More schools in the world are becoming digitalized, but there are still places in the world that heavily depend on the wooden pencil for adequate learning. There are also those artists, draftsmen, businessmen and architects that prefer to jot down their ideas and draw designs, the traditional way. The production of wooden pencils takes a toll on the world’s forests, with 82,000 trees cut down each year to make 2 billion traditional wooden pencils, as each tree yields about 170,000 pencils. However, until something that is equally convenient is invented, wooden pencils will continue to be used by kids learning to write, and by others – out of easy availability. …A large percentage of cedar wood designated to pencil-making for distribution around the world is grown in Sweden and South Africa. …The one upside to traditional pencils, is that they are natural, almost 100% biodegradable, and relatively cheap.

Building three million new homes and turning the UK into a zero-carbon economy is a contradiction says tax and advisory firm Blick Rothenberg, joining a chorus of criticism to Boris Johnson’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ exhortation earlier this week. In response to the Prime Minister’s announcement on Tuesday, Alex Altmann a partner at the firm, said: “Reforming the planning system and investing in house building are welcome and long-overdue initiatives, but they must be accompanied by a green revolution in the UK’s construction industry.” “The property sector is one of the biggest carbon emitters in the UK. …“Construction sectors in Germany, Austria and North America have been leading the green revolution for many years and have successfully transformed the industry by using more sustainable materials, like cross-laminated timber or glulam wood products, which act as carbon-sinks as opposed to carbon-emitters in buildings”.

The Central Public Works Department ended a ban in place since 1993 on the use of timber in its construction projects, saying that the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) had asked for the ban to be lifted in order to boost the economy, generate jobs and encourage farmers to plant more trees. “Removing the ban will create demand for wood-based industries that would spur the local economy…” The CPWD memo said that wood was a versatile material and the “life cycle economic cost of timber is also often much lower” in comparison to other construction materials. …Capture and storage of atmospheric carbon in growing forests and timber would help in addressing climate change, the CPWD said …“Therefore, it has been decided to remove the ban on use of timber in construction and to promote its use in construction of buildings/habitat development,” it said.

Face-to-face dialogue over virtual meeting is the key to success in wood industry. And this vision encouraged industry stalwarts to take the decision of postponing the first Rosenheim LIGNA.Conference until 2022. The first Rosenheim LIGNA. Conference, a new event for the woodworking and timber processing industry that was originally scheduled in October 2020 has been postponed until 2022. The organisers, Deutsche Messe and Rosenheim University of Applied Sciences (TH Rosenheim), felt that Germany’s COVID-19 restrictions may well still be in place by the end of 2020. After lengthy consideration, they have decided to reschedule the event rather than take it virtual because they believe platforms that allow face-to-face dialogue are the only way to go in the wood industry.

Atlassian plans to build the world’s tallest hybrid timber tower for its new headquarters next to Central Station, reshaping the skyline at the southern end of Sydney’s CBD. The 40-storey building will become the centrepiece of the state government-planned tech hub… Comprising mass timber and a facade of glass and steel, the building will feature a staggered outdoor garden as well as self-shading to control temperatures. Once complete in 2025, it will accommodate up to 4000 Atlassian staff, and a YHA hostel on its lower levels. …Atlassian, a global software giant, billed it as the tallest “commercial hybrid timber” building in the world at 180 metres high, and featuring a mix of outdoor and indoor areas. …Atlassian’s Scott Hazard said sustainability was a key focus for the tower, which would be built to last 100 years. “Cross-laminated timber is an incredibly green material, and it helps us avoid massive amounts of concrete and steel,” he said.

The use of cross-laminated timber is expanding around the world, popularised by its many environmental benefits. The material sequesters carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during the growth of its timber feedstock, compared to its counterpart concrete—which is said to account for between 4 per cent and 8 per cent of the world’s CO2 emissions. Mass timber can act as an alternative to steel and concrete, using prefabricated construction methods to deliver projects that would not be possible using conventional building approaches.

From bridges and buildings to tunnels, concrete is a vital cog in modern infrastructure projects. And while it may have become indispensable to major developments, concrete also has a significant impact on the environment. …According to a 2018 report from Chatham House, over 4 billion metric tons of cement are produced annually. This, the policy institute said, accounts “for around 8 per cent of global CO2 emissions.” …Earlier this month Boral – an Australian firm… announced the launch of a five-year partnership with the University of Technology Sydney … to “accelerate product innovation, and the research, development and commercialisation of low carbon concrete.” …In the U.K., the DB Group has developed Cemfree, which it describes as a “totally cement-free alternative to conventional concrete.”

Cross laminated timber (CLT) pioneers have invested in a new fire research and compliance framework to provide scientific data for CLT fire performance. Considered a robust, fast, clean, sustainable and renewable method of construction, cross laminated timber (CLT) is now widely acknowledged as having a vital role to play in reducing CO2emissions to mitigate the climate change crisis. Existing buildings and new construction account for nearly 40% of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions according to a World Green Building Council report published in September 2019. …In collaboration, leading CLT manufacturers are investing half a million pounds in developing a new fire safety compliance framework for CLT to meet the amended Building Regulations in England. Over the next 18 months the research supporting the new framework will include a series of compartment fire tests for commercial and multi-family residential type buildings to generate new knowledge in support of a safe design envelope for CLT buildings.

After the original Tungestølen Tourist Cabin was destroyed by Cyclone Dagmar, a devastating windstorm that swept over Norway on Christmas 2011, glacier hikers lost a treasured destination. Luster Turlag, a local branch of the Norwegian National Trekking Association, and a small local village, came together to collect funds to rebuild and initiated an international design competition that Snøhetta won back in 2015. Snøhetta’s design consists of nine new cabins, each pentagonal in form, made with glue-lam frames, covered in sheets of cross-laminated timber (CLT), and clad in ore pine. The exterior facing walls of the cabins Have a beak-like shape to combat strong winds rising from the valley floor.

The logic seems counter-intuitive.  Timber burns and things eat it.  Having said that, it is an easy to build with material.  And we are told it is more sustainable. But how true is the positive sustainability line?  We often have to take the experts word for it, and relying on the word of others can at times be very unprofessional.  People who push a concept may have ulterior motives or stand to benefit from the push, and we know that data and statistics can be presented to favor a point of view. Without authenticating the scientific data on timber’s sustainability, from a superficial lay-persons view, there are concerns.  Of course, timber can be regrown, which is its big sustainability selling point, but is the whole concept debatable?