As architects face up to the need for ethical, sustainable design in the age of climate change awareness, timber architecture is making a comeback in a new, technologically impressive way. Largely overlooked in the age of Modernism, recent years have seen a plethora of advancements related to mass timber across the world.
I am officially confused. And this, from this morning's Chicago Tribune, doesn't help.
Mixing concrete and forging steel emit massive amounts of carbon dioxide, but timber buildings remove carbon from the atmosphere, something environmentally conscious residents and office users increasingly desire.
OK, you can grow more trees and you can't grow concrete; I get that part. But cutting the trees down, processing them and treating them in some suspiciously chemical-sounding way, hauling them around sticking them together (with what…nails?) sounds just as energy-consuming as any other technique. To me. And more than a little dicey.
Although riding up and down in wooden elevators sounds kind of…quaint.
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