Category Archives: Wood, Paper & Green Building

Patrizio Antonicoli

Europe… saw new EC president, Ursula von der Leyen, present her Green Deal… “with no net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The EC ambition demands all sectors play a role and… That means the woodworking industries shouldering their responsibility. …As an industry we have much to do to transition to the era of the Green Deal and its environmental imperatives. But CEI-Bois has developed three key assets to underpin the process. The CEI-Bois Manifesto… illustrates how the European woodworking industry can help the EU reach key goals, such as reduction of GHG emissions. …Building the Bioeconomy booklet shows how Europe can reduce emissions by using low carbon, renewable alternatives, such as timber, over high carbon materials, such as concrete, steel and plastic. …Finally the Forest-Based Industries vision 2050 focuses on how forest-based solutions can help.

The Cass at London Metropolitan University is launching the capital’s first postgraduate programme in Timber Technology. This will address key skills shortages in the architecture and construction sectors, stimulate economic growth, and respond to the growing demand for sustainable building. …Research from the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Timber Industry has identified timber as a potential solution to the housing crisis facing the country… In June 2019, Architecture’s Subject Standards Board RIBA declared a ‘climate emergency’ …As the only widely available construction material that allows for carbon negative construction, timber will be central to future sustainable development of London, the UK and internationally, with many local authorities establishing a ‘timber first’ approach to planning policy as part of a series of moves towards a green economy.   

Experts pioneering the widespread use of structural timber have expressed fears that government plans to further tighten the ban on combustible material on the external walls of buildings will compound damage already done to the sector. They said the UK risked losing its leadership position in the use of cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glulam, which… have a much lower carbon footprint than traditional build materials such as concrete, steel and masonry. The concerns come after the government this week consulted on plans to reduce the height at which the ban comes into effect from 18m to 11m, potentially affecting a far greater number of residential buildings. …AHMM’s Crawley said there was no alternative to using timber in the long term if the government wanted to move to zero carbon. “Timber is a renewable material… In terms of lower-carbon construction, there are no other effective or available alternatives,” he said.

…A central theme of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games: sustainability and environmental consciousness. …Podiums are being made from recycled plastic and the beds that competitors will sleep on in the athletes’ village have been fashioned out of cardboard, which will itself be reused in paper products after the Games. Kuma’s trademark emphasis on wood… is present in decorative tiers of eaves that encircle the bowl like a planet’s rings. …Not everyone is convinced of Tokyo 2020’s green credentials. …12 NGOs argue that construction of the New National Stadium had caused a “severe negative impact on the tropical rainforests in Indonesia and Malaysia”, adding that their attempts to raise concerns had been effectively ignored. …Tokyo 2020 chiefs have rejected the criticisms, saying its protocols met standards set by other NGOs such as the Forest Stewardship Council and the Marine Stewardship Council.

At around this point last year, The Guardian ran the headline, “Concrete: the most destructive material on Earth.” This was, you could say, concrete’s watershed moment. Attitudes towards the material have shifted significantly as architects ditch their béton love affair and look for something new with cork and hemp emerging as new kids on the block. However, perhaps it’s an old friend which will be the most help to architects amid the climate catastrophe: wood.   “Timber is the new concrete,” said Alex de Rijke, cofounder and partner at the London-based dRMM (de Rijke Marsh Morgan). It’s a belief de Rijke has held since 2006 and one his firm has practiced too, the results of which are currently on display at RIBA North, the Royal Institute of British Architects’ center in Liverpool, U.K.

The timber processing industry is disappointed the government  is not implementing a promise to look at using wood for more government buildings, and has threatened to block-vote against it in the 2020 election. Chief executives from more than 50 forestry-wood processing companies, representing more than 10,000 employees, have signed an open letter calling on the government to honour its commitment to the procurement policy for government buildings, which was consistent with its Zero Carbon goal. Industry spokesman and Red Stag Group chief executive Marty Verry said the policy had the backing of NZ First and the Green Party and it was time for Labour to move on it. …Green Party MP Gareth Hughes said there was a “massive opportunity” to support lifting forestry up the value chain and store carbon by using New Zealand wood.

Plans have been revealed for a timber office building that will float on the Rijnhaven, a port on Rotterdam’s Nieuwe Maas River. The project, which will begin construction in spring 2020, has been designed by Powerhouse Company to be energy-neutral and self-sufficient. Expected to remain in the port for a period of 5 to 10 years, the design boasts a wide range of state-of-the-art sustainability measures, such as heat exchange through the harbor water. …‘Designing a sustainable, floating office building was a very challenging commission and we approached it in an integrated way,’ says Nanne de Ru, Powerhouse Company founder and architect. ‘By using the water of the Rijnhaven to cool the building, and by using the roof of the office as a large energy source, the building is truly autarkic. The building structure is designed in wood, it can easily be demounted and re-used. the building is ready for the circular economy.’

LONDON, England — More details have emerged on the plans laid out by housing secretary Robert Jenrick to extend the ban on combustible materials in external walls to residential buildings of as little as three- and four-storeys. Jenrick announced the proposal… amid a raft of new measures laid out prior to the resumption of the Grenfell Tower public inquiry. He also laid out plans to ban… the type of cladding used on Grenfell Tower – on buildings of any height. And he proposed reducing the height both at which sprinklers are required and at which the combustibles ban comes into force from 18m to 11m. …But the ban does not propose to make any allowances for the use of structural timber products such as CLT and Glulam, which are caught by the ban but which proponents say are not a fire-risk.

MEXICO CITY –  Thousands of professional wood products professionals will converge on Mexico City Jan. 22-24 for MEM Industrial, the country’s leading trade show for the primary and secondary wood manufacturing industry. The event features more than 200 popular brands of woodworking technology and supplies spread across more than 150,000-square-feet of exhibition space at Centro Citibanamex. …MEM Industrial (Magna ExpoMueblera Industrial) is organized by Hannover Fairs México, a subsidiary of Deutsche Messe of Germany. 

From tall timber buildings to micro manufacture, the products, systems and approaches necessary for the delivery of a sustainable built environment are available. Appropriate application to the context requires informed decision-making enabled by digital tools. Establishing a Trimble Technology lab at Edinburgh Napier presents a unique opportunity to create the right environment to furnish the sector with the next generation of individuals that have the necessary knowledge and skills to move a sustainable built environment forward. …The whole-life performance of built assets therefore needs to be fully considered. Embracing offsite approaches to construction delivery utilising renewable resources combined with digitisation offers a solution. Digital integration of the supply chain from forest floor to built asset is ambitious but can be made a reality with the correct ingredients and endeavour. …The CCG iQ closed panel timber frame system used standard details from the research; these panels were then capable of being fully enhanced in the factory environment for on-site efficiency.

Adam Faircloth

Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries Mark Furner said Adam Faircloth, a timber engineer with the Queensland Government Department of Agriculture & Fisheries (DAF) Forestry Research team at the Salisbury Research Facility, won the prize for best presentation for his research into a non-destructive evaluation system for mass timber panels. “The manufacture of cross-laminated timber (CLT) products for full-scale applications has increased over the past decade and has placed pressure on manufacturers assessing the quality of these products,” Mr Furner said. “At the moment these panels are assessed using static or destructive methods and while they provide accurate results, they are costly, time-consuming and destructive. “Mr Faircloth’s work means timber panels don’t have to be destroyed to be assessed and will allow manufacturers to rapidly assess the stiffness and shear properties to determine uses for the product.” Mr Faircloth said his research … would help manufacturers save time, money and resources.

In 2015, the Japanese government chose Kengo Kuma to design the new national stadium in Tokyo, the arena which will form the centerpiece of the city’s 2020 Olympic Games. …Now, with the Olympics on the horizon, designboom visited the site to document the completed stadium and its surroundings. … ‘The facade consists of overlapping, multi-layered eaves,’ explains Kengo Kuma’s office. ‘The underside of each eave is covered with small-diameter wood louvers in an effort to express the tradition of beautiful eaves in Japanese architecture in an appropriate contemporary manner. The roof has a truss structure which combines steel beams and laminated lumber with a medium cross-section, utilizing the axial stiffness of wood to minimize deformation of the roof trusses due to wind or earthquakes.’

The World Wildlife Fund expressed concern Monday over standards set for commodity procurement by the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, saying that they are “inappropriate.” In a statement, the WWF said it was “deeply concerned” that the organizing committee produced “protocols that fell far below globally accepted sustainability standards” especially for timber, fishery products, paper and palm oil to be used for the 2020 Summer Games. …“As the host country of the Tokyo Olympics, Japan is responsible for sourcing and consuming products in a sustainable way,” said WWF-Japan CEO Ron Tsutsui. …The committee rebuffed the criticisms, saying its procurement codes recognized various points of views with feasibility in mind and used standards created by international organizations such as the Forest Stewardship Council and the Marine Stewardship Council.

Developer Southern Grove has announced plans to build a new £33m sustainable office development in Shoreditch, London. The sustainable office development 16 Orsman Road is also set to break new ground in green building. The developer exchanged contracts on the land yesterday (15 January) and plans to use Cross Laminated Timber (CLT). This will mean the building, spanning six floors, is approximately four to five times lighter than a traditional building, resulting in much smaller foundations and minimal disruption to the neighbouring canal. Architects Waugh Thistleton was selected for its flare in CLT design.

Loyn & Co has unveiled its design for Parc Hadau, a net-zero-carbon housing scheme in Wales that will be built from cross-laminated timber and powered by renewable energy. Developed by Loyn & Co … the Parc Hadau neighbourhood will comprise 35 eco-friendly dwellings. …the homes will have a net-zero-embodied-carbon primary structure, use passive design, use renewable energy technologies to generate enough electricity to power the scheme. …Each house will be built using cross-laminated timber. Timber absorbs atmospheric carbon as it grows, and subsequently retains it during its life in a building. This is hoped to offset the carbon emissions of foundations of the building, which will be made from a low carbon concrete. This will be “evidenced and calculated” throughout construction to look to further improve future schemes. Externally, the homes will be clad in a mix of locally sourced and low-embodied-energy materials that include timber, local stone and reclaimed brick.