How wood can become the prominent building material (again) – and what needs to change for that

Wood has been humanity’s construction material basically until the turn of the 19th century. Then we switched over to the more malleable and thus predictable and (seemingly) stronger steel and concrete. But the environmental damage is forcing us to retrace our steps. Fortunately, wood – a.k.a. timber – was just waiting to be rediscovered for a new age of mass construction. Maikel Kuijpers notes three myths that are holding it back:

Wood burns. True, true. But: if you treat it right, it can withstand any fire. Chinese satellites re-entred earth’s atmosphere using a WOODEN heat shield (https://lnkd.in/ea2ZVHXP)
Wood snaps: innovation like cross-laminated timber or glued laminated timber can make timber stronger than metal and standardize it in one fell swoop, so that it can be deployed at scale, and thus efficiently – essential for cost reduction.
Wood is scarce: for some timber we do have to be careful about deforestation, but fast-growing wood (that you can use for most construction use cases) is for the moment in large supply in Europe. (Still, Brian Potter suggests that replacing all concrete construction with timber would triple the amount of forest we’d need to harvest and thinks we aren’t ready for that, yet. https://lnkd.in/erHBSv26)

So, the fly-over picture: timber is ready for primetime: to take back the centre-stage from concrete and steel.
But that’s at fly-over level. As Kuijpers says: we need to unlearn the ways of the concrete era. And that’s where the devil is in the details, as organizations working on the frontline of biobased building know (Climate-KIC, Dark Matter Labs, REDO SGR S.p.A. – Società Benefit, Crea Madrid Nuevo Norte): ok, no fire hazard, but that means laws and regulation need to be updated and adopted; ok, it’s better than concrete, but claims at lower CO2 need to be precise, for companies to bid on tenders that require CO2 accounting, and we often can’t track emissions at that level of detail; ok, timber may be very quick to build, but its maintenance and its recycling present challenges that need new building practices that are still pretty early in the learning curve; yes, there is a strong concrete lobby, but don’t underestimate the displacement of work this ‘revolutionary return’ to the past means – current workers in construction companies basically have no place in the radically different timber construction process.

So spread the good news of good ol’ timber wherever you can, but add that doing it right means learning a lot and learning takes time and space .

Read further here (In Dutch)