Category Archives: Wood, Paper & Green Building

…To ensure greater safety for people evacuating burning buildings, there is a strong demand for the use of more flame-retardant wood materials in building interiors, says Japanese high-performance fibre producer Teijin. Teijin, a technology-driven global group, has responded by developing a number of breakthrough solutions, including Landex Coat Flame Retardant Clear, an aqueous transparent acrylic flame-retardant coating, in cooperation with Dainichi Giken Kogyo Co., a Japanese pioneer of aqueous inorganic polymers, and Daimaru Kogyo Ltd., a leading Japanese chemical trading company. As the world’s first halogen-free coating of its kind Landex Coat Flame Retardant Clear improves the flame retardancy of a diverse range of combustible materials, including timber, paper, fibre, rubber and plastic.

With the current post-lockdown focus to ‘buy local’, the NZ Forest Sector Forum is posing the question – why isn’t New Zealand consuming more New Zealand wood and wood products? According to MPI (a packaging organization), approximately two-thirds of New Zealand wood is exported. Almost $6.93 billion was exported from NZ in 2018-19. On the flipside, New Zealand imported over $1.5 billion worth of wood products in 2019. So why are we importing a huge amount of wood products when we grow so much ourselves? …We can support regional NZ by using NZ wood products in a range of areas, from our packaging and hygiene products to our paper and construction materials. There’s never been a better time to buy local and buy NZ wood and wood products.

DK-CM has built a cross-laminated timber reception pavilion with a diagrid roof in the gap between two junior schools in Norfolk, UK, to connect the previously separate institutions.  The link building connects the 1950s junior school and 1990s infant school in Gorleston, Great Yarmouth, and aims to unite the two institutions that are now both part operated as the Wroughton Academy.  ….Constructed from cross-laminated timber (CLT) and Glulam, the reception pavilion has a striking diagrid – diagonal grid – patterned roof and exposed timber walls. The roof pattern is echoed in the grey and yellow, triangular floor decoration.  “The exposed timber interior gives a rich and distinctive character to the space, which pupils have already declared to be inspiring and well-loved,” said DK-CM.

The government is planning to reduce the maximum height of wood-framed buildings from six storeys to four.  The move’s been recommended by the emergency services in order to reduce fire risk.  But it contradicts other advice to increase timber construction because trees lock up climate-heating carbon emissions.  In France, President Macron has ruled all new publicly-funded buildings should be at least 50% timber or other natural materials by 2022.  And in Norway a new “ply-scraper” stretches fully 18 storeys – that’s the height recently deemed safe by standards authorities in North America.  Members of the timber trade say the Government in England has misunderstood the science behind timber construction.  They say timber walls can be made safe by methods including flame-retardant treatments and fire-resistant claddings.

The consultation on the government’s proposals for the use of combustible materials in construction has now closed, leaving policy makers to weigh up the competing claims of well-funded vested interests. On the one side Big Timber is saying think again; one the other side is Big Concrete, urging the government to hold firm. …The consultation process was…extended by six weeks to 25th May 2020 because of the coronavirus outbreak. The government proposes that the height of timber-based buildings used for housing and accommodation would be limited to 11 metres. In higher buildings, timber would be allowed in floors but not for external walls. The timber industry has come out firmly against this and warned that restricting the use of timber will compromise the drive for next zero carbon construction. …However, UK Concrete, part of the Mineral Products Association, has told the government that the combustibles ban should come with no exemptions and no further testing. 

Rob Gaimster

While the post Covid-19 economy will require timely and bold Government intervention, demanding timber be considered over other construction materials could compromise the resilience and safety of our homes, places of work and infrastructure.  While well-intentioned, a potential ‘wood-first’ policy dictating that all new government buildings up to 10 storeys consider a timber option, and that government give preference to renting new timber buildings, will have serious unintended consequences. …As we begin to grapple with the aftermath of Covid-19, timber industry advocates have been quick to bang this misconceived policy drum, praising it as a silver bullet to address looming unemployment, while exaggerating the properties of structural timber along with its sustainability credentials. …To start arbitrarily stipulating one building material over another will harm rather than help the economy, the environment and ultimately New Zealand.

ADELAIDE, Australia — Bosch Manufacturing Solutions will partner with 3RT in a contract for the production automation of manufactured hardwood. Based in Melbourne and Adelaide, 3RT has developed a world-first technology in collaboration with Flinders University, that converts wood waste into timber that looks and performs like 100-year-old tropical hardwood, called Designer Hardwood. 3RTs commercial products have only been sold in Australia so far and include indoor furnishings such as flooring, stairs, doors and panelling. …Flinders University Institute of Nanoscale Science and Development director Professor David Lewis, says “Actually seeing real world results of the research we are doing is very satisfying for us as individuals but also for the university because we are having an impact in the world.”

Johannes Konnerth

Innovation Origins interviews researcher Johannes Konnerth: Architecture has (re)discovered wood as a building material for urban spaces….There is much to be said for this building material, emphasizes Professor Johannes Konnerth from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna. Using timber allows you to build faster and more efficiently – and also more environmentally friendly. At the moment, the most common building material is cement – its production process consumes large quantities of fossil fuels and releases vast amounts of CO2. Wood  is derived from CO2 from the atmosphere, sunlight, and rain. Conversion … requires less energy that’s generated from fossil fuels. Wood would thus be a more efficient building material and could cut CO2 emissions considerably, Konnerth explains. …Right now, he’s in the process of introducing two new research specializations there. His focus is on new production technologies and the intelligent properties of wood.

At the end of 2018, as part of fire safety improvement measures intended to prevent another horrific blaze like that seen at Grenfell Tower, the (then) Housing Secretary James Brokenshire introduced new legislation banning combustible materials on new high-rise dwellings above 18 metres in height. Late last year, the new Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick called for the height threshold for combustible materials to be lowered to “at least 11 metres” … While there’s no question that the Fire Safety Bill is intended to enhance occupant safety, we absolutely mustn’t lose sight of timber’s inherent qualities as a building material. …We as an industry are calling for an objective investigation. …To quash the use of wood in structures over 11 metres tall would be to fly in the face of the sustainable evolution that the construction industry and, more importantly, the nation so desperately needs.

In response to government investigating alternative housing solutions for densely populated informal settlements during the Covid-19 pandemic, Sawmilling South Africa (SSA) and the Institute for Timber Construction South Africa (ITC-SA) have approached government with a proposal that timber be seen as one of the construction materials of choice, and as a longer-term solution that will transcend the current crisis and immediate needs. One of the many pressures that the pandemic has placed on South Africa is the pressing need to provide alternative housing and infrastructure for people living in informal settlements, where it is feared Covid-19 may spread more quickly. …According to the organisations, correctly treated wood is in fact highly durable and performs better than many other materials in the event of fire. Apart from complying with most municipal regulations, it also offers exceptional thermal insulation, is cost-effective and is an environmentally lighter option.

A Billy bookcase is made every three seconds. But with a third of people admitting to throwing away furniture that they could have sold or donated, does the cheap furniture boom have a heavy environmental price? …[Since the start of the COVID outbreak] online furniture retailers have reported strong demand. Revenues have doubled at Wayfair, the US furnishings giant. Ikea, which is preparing to reopen its stores, has doubled down online, slapping its new slogan, “Conquer the great indoors”, on desk chairs and storage solutions for tinned food. As the walls close in, many of us are sprucing them up. But there is a payoff. While online retailers have stayed open, the means of disposing of old furniture have all but disappeared. Public waste centres and charity shops have closed their doors, while many “freecycling” websites and for-sale pages of community forums have suspended trading.

Construction materials alone, including carbon and steel, contribute 11% of global carbon emissions (by comparison, air travel contributes about 2.5%). That’s why architects and development companies around the world are opting for a novel but not-so-new solution: wood. A study from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, in Germany, found that with proper forest management, a global boom in wood buildings could sequester up to 700 million tons of carbon a year (wood naturally stores carbon, preventing it from being released into the atmosphere). The idea is catching on: Google’s Sidewalk Labs has proposed a 12-acre timber neighborhood in Toronto, while in February, France mandated that all public buildings after 2022 be constructed of at least 50% wood or other organic materials.