Wood has under no circumstances been as well-liked as a setting up materials as it is these days: the Zurich exhibition “Contact Wood” examines the future of developing with wooden. The e book that accompanies them goes even even more and sheds gentle on the recent, historical-cultural and ecological sides of forests, trees and woods.
A review by Thomas Wagner.
It is generally explained that the upcoming of construction are unable to be made with concrete, steel and glass, nor with natural stone or brick, and undoubtedly not with plastic. Only wooden, a renewable making product, can support in this article. If you want to know much more about the significance of the forest, trees, wooden and forward-on the lookout timber constructions, you must transform to Zurich. Equally the “Touch Wooden” exhibition at the Zentrum Architektur Zürich Bellerive, scheduled until 30 October, and the e book released by Lars Müller Publishers “Touch wood. Subject, architecture, long term”, recognize wood not only as a building material. Wood is substantially, much more. If you want to rethink and examine “the position of wood which is so very important to society”, it is value looking at this exclusive material from extremely distinctive perspectives. Up to the concern of what “transformative likely” lies in wooden and what can lead to the sustainable architecture of the foreseeable future. The actuality is: no matter if it is the CO2 balance, technological developments, “eco-friendly” metropolitan areas or the partnership with character in typical, forests, trees and wood are at the centre of the discussion.
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Supporting the wooden spirits
The invitation to touch wood in the title by now opens up surprising views: “Sometimes”, writes Philip Ursprung in the book, “we touch wood or knock on it, often by reflex, to avert misfortunes. The gesture of touching wooden is a remnant of spirituality that has turn out to be uncommon in industrialized societies. It probably comes from the historic belief that guardian spirits dwell in trees and that people can get hold of these spirits by tapping on the bark of a tree or by hugging a tree. Could it be that the latest expanding fascination in wooden as a making material in industrial societies is also a sign of superstition? Do we hope that the spirits of wooden will allow for us to carry on our industrialized way of living and guard us from the catastrophic consequences of climate change?
Trees are far more than wood producers
So there is still a good deal of magic in the wood. And many guarantees. But what specifically are you working with? Anybody who speaks of the forest speaks of numerous trees, not of wood. Trees are dwelling organisms, not just a conveniently renewable useful resource. The trees expand, the wood is no much more. Also, it can not only be crafted with wooden. Also, not all wooden is the exact same. And even if it proceeds to “do the job”, as they say, in the end it is useless materials. Transforming trees into wooden is and stays a recycling course of action: “A tree ripens far better when it is felled,” says a get the job done by Robert Wilson and Phil Glass.
Each the exhibition and the book aim to offer in depth details on wooden as a product and the options of wood building. The exhibition focuses a lot more on development engineering and architecture, though the e book also has the undertaking of describing the numerous aspects that require when it comes to wooden, trees and forests. So we are amazed around and above again how significant wooden is and how ambivalent our partnership with this magical material was and is.
“Wood is 1 of the finest and most required things in the world”
In conditions of cultural record, people today and wood were being closely connected, not just in conditions of the link in between electrical power and forest guidelines. According to the contribution of Joachim Radkau, Martin Luther currently spoke of wood in an following-supper speech on August 30, 1532: “I am shocked that our God makes use of wood for so several diverse functions for all people today all more than the world, as lumber. for developing, firewood, carpentry wooden […]wood for dwelling rooms, wheelbarrows, shovels […]. And who can explain to all the use of wood? All in all, wood is one of the biggest and most required issues in the entire world that you have to have and can not do devoid of “. In accordance to Radkau, the “wooden age” has prolonged well to industrialization. And so some slogans on the road to a new “wooden age” of ecological improve arrive from afar – and at the exact same time place to the long run.
Imagine at unique situations
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Not only historically, but also in conditions of time, wooden forces us to assume in other proportions, as Jürgen Blaser can make distinct: “An oak that is planted nowadays, in 2022, at the foot of the Alps should really be completely developed all-around 2170. The important Sipo tree, which has just sprouted and is commencing a new lifestyle competing for mild and vitamins and minerals in a gap in the Congo Basin rainforest, ideally, will tower earlier mentioned the cover outside of the 12 months 2200. Stone pine Siberian, at this time a sapling in the Russian taiga, will only access its adult measurement in an equally distant foreseeable future. When we think of forests and trees, we have to assume in terms of centuries, not years. ”According to Blaser, from a global point of view, not it is the destiny of particular person trees that is decisive, but that of the forests in which they develop: “In see of the predicted decrease in non-renewable resources and massive environmental alterations these kinds of as climate alter, the destiny of trees and forests in the relaxation of this century and outside of is of paramount worth to humanity. ”
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It can hardly be claimed far more evidently. Substantially of what you can study about trees and wood from “Contact Wooden” inquiries the prevailing economy and the strategy that you can continue on to build with the exact homogeneous and standardized products. One particular of the merits of the exhibition and the e-book is that it highlights the usually naive belief that wooden is either mere mother nature or an simply available, homogeneous content these types of as design boards which are typically designed with squander wooden. On the contrary, in accordance to Albena Yaneva, this means: “Natural resources can no for a longer time be treated as mere resources that are applied and exploited by highly effective men and women, designers or builders, but should be actively worked ‘from within'”.
Partly useless, partly alive
In small: wood usually takes time, it is treasured, not new as a setting up materials, but ever more in desire, even if it is only just one of the numerous renewable resources that are essential for the improvement of a sustainable building tradition. Wooden is an organic and natural and particular person material of huge cultural significance. As a setting up materials, it is the two a renewable useful resource and a lifeless product. From which Philip Ursprung attracts the conclusion: “Material wood is total of emotions for industrial societies precisely because the rigidity in between these properties are unable to be resolved. Partly useless, partly alive: wooden connects materials and best, earlier and current, tangible and imaginary.
Transitions to a routine maintenance and fix lifestyle
All these sides are unfold out in different chapters: From forest to wood and from wooden to architecture. It turns into very clear: that forests are turning into far more and much more valuable, that they need protection and care, that forests take up virtually 30% of the greenhouse gases emitted each individual 12 months, that the source of timber is just just one of the quite a few solutions that forests give . That wood was most likely the very first setting up material made use of by guy, that modularity and reuse in wooden constructions should be expanded. In the chapter “The architecture of wooden”, Hubertus Adam then examines the partnership concerning matter and architecture in the past 150 many years, starting off from Switzerland. A collection of Swiss jobs from the commencing of the previous century also displays that typically experimental strategies type the basis for present-day timber constructions. And the global tasks of Grafton Architects, Kengo Kuma, Seng Kuan and Wataru Kumano are getting ready the changeover to foreseeable future visions of anthropocenic architecture and a tradition of upkeep and fix.
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In the finish, it is not just architects who have to make your mind up: use much less assets, layout for a materials cycle, consider care of the built heritage, layout wholesome residing areas, design for every day existence and engage in a nearby actuality to establish lifestyle. . Sharing know-how, working with new systems, but also mastering from the occupation. Experiment with hybrid methods, develop effectively making use of prefabrication, know the origin of the substance and substantially more. Or, as former Federal President Theodor Heuss stated: “Wood is a monosyllabic word, but behind it hides a world full of fairy tales and wonders.”
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Hrsg. v. Carla Ferrer, Thomas Hildebrand, Celina Martinez-Cannavate
Contributions by Hubertus Adam, Herzog & de Meuron, Seng Kuan, Kengo Kuma, Katharina Lehmann, Stephen Pyne, Helene Romakin, Philip Ursprung, Albena Yaneva and other folks
Design: integral Lars Müller
br., 304 S., 286 Abb.
Lars Müller Publisher, Zurich 2022
ISBN 978-3-03778-697-, German 2022
ISBN 978-3-03778-698-7, English (in all probability from September 2022)
40.00 Euros
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