21–30 of 48 posts
I am absolutely ectatic about getting transparent wood windows fitted in my wooden house! That would be so amazing! ... but then I remember how they don't build wooden houses in Palestine :-(
Why don't they? What do they use instead?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cross-laminated timber is already being used for 10-story buildings today. Here's an 18-story one: https://www.dezeen.com/2019/03/19/mjostarne-worlds-tallest-t... And there's a 12-story one in Portland: https://www.archpaper.com/2017/06/framework-portland-timber-...
Incredible stuff. How come this isn't more prominent?
Stronger than steel? At what thickness?
Several of the new mid-rise buildings in Atlanta, including Facebook's new office building, are all-wood construction using new techniques [1, 2]. This is currently the largest timber building in the US [3], and they've announced they're building more. I imagine this is going to become booming business. [1] https://atlanta.curbed.com/2020/3/19/21186363/facebook-atlan... [2] https://www.ajc.com/business/real-estate/mi…
Does anyone know if this could be used to build high-rises? I imagine it has enough strength for a 10 story building, but the fire risk might be too high.
Several of the new mid-rise buildings in Atlanta, including Facebook's new office building, are all-wood construction using new techniques [1, 2]. This is currently the largest timber building in the US [3], and they've announced they're building more. I imagine this is going to become booming business. [1] https://atlanta.curbed.com/2020/3/19/21186363/facebook-atlan... [2] https://www.ajc.com/business/real-estate/mi…
New Atlassian HQ in Sydney is wood. https://www.startupdaily.net/2020/06/atlassian-is-building-t...
I'm not an expert, but as far as I know existing densified wood is basically stronger by virtue of cramming more material closer together - the wood fibers themselves don't change mechanical properties at all, there's just more of them in a given area. So your strength increases are paired with an increase mass as well. If this actually increased the strength of the wood fibers, that would be interesting.
It's an interesting technique, but we already have processed wood products that offer significant strength gains over natural lumber [2], and they haven't displaced regular wood all that much. Normal sawn lumber is often strong enough, and it's just incredibly inexpensive. So it's unclear how much difference another stronger, processed wood product would make to the building market (I can't speak to other uses like body armor or vehicles).
I think long term, the most potential for wood improvement lies with improved trees that grow stronger, faster, and with fewer natural defects. Most agricultural products have been deliberately bred for desirable traits for thousands of years, but we've only just begun to do this with trees. (I wrote more about this here: https://constructionphysics.substack.com/p/stronger-faster-c... )
(Source: structural engineer, formerly worked at a mass-timber focused construction startup).
[1] - https://www.roechling-industrial.com/us/products/composites/... [2] - https://www.mjbwood.com/lsl-lumber/#:~:text=LSL%20Lumber%20(....
Several of the new mid-rise buildings in Atlanta, including Facebook's new office building, are all-wood construction using new techniques [1, 2]. This is currently the largest timber building in the US [3], and they've announced they're building more. I imagine this is going to become booming business. [1] https://atlanta.curbed.com/2020/3/19/21186363/facebook-atlan... [2] https://www.ajc.com/business/real-estate/mi…
As the article mentions, densified wood already exists as a product [1]. But it's basically never used for building materials. As far as I can tell it's main use-case is for electrical transformer support pads and anchorage, as you need a strong, non-conductive material for that. So right now it's a fairly niche product. I'm not an expert, but as far as I know existing densified wood is basically stronger by virtue o…
Stronger than steel? At what thickness?