Reviewed by Ken Hickson
8 July 2021
Unearthing the Delights and Insights in “Tomorrow’s Timber”
Timber is in the news everywhere. For all the right reasons. And it’s difficult to avoid running into tall stories about Mass Engineered Timber (MET) and buildings made entirely of wood. Of course, there will be the naysayers who come up with all the reasons why wood is not so good – for the environment, for fire safety, for its added cost.
But when you believe in timber as the best material for building – as PEFC obviously does – it’s good to read what Pablo van der Lugt has to say, and show, in Tomorrow’s Timber. No holding back. Page after page of case studies, plans, architects’ ideas, drawings and photographs of some of the best examples in the world. It all goes to illustrate what the author calls “the next building revolution”.
The same week I was handed a copy of the PEFC published “Tomorrow’s Timber”, I visited a building site in Singapore – complete with hard hat and safety boots – to inspect progress on six timber pavilions being assembled for National Parks by Venturer Timberwork. Going through a PEFC certified project process, too.
So everything in Pablo van der Lugt’s book jells with me, as I’ve long been a big fan of what I call “Wood for Good”. And everything is good about Pablo’s book, not only in the buildings and designs he presents in text and images, but in the presentation and production of the book itself. Of course its printed on certified paper. And as PEFC and FSC in the Netherlands supported the production of Tomorrow’s Timber, they both rightly get credited.
Besides unreservedly selling the virtues of timber for the built environment, Pablo also deals with the common timber myths. Just like we have climate change sceptics, we have undeniable deniers on the value and durability of wood. Responsibly sourced and with sustainable supply chains, timber is obviously better than any material known to man for the structure and completeness of any building on earth.
Tomorrow’s Timber is packed with well-illustrated examples and case studies from around the world – including quite a few finalists and winners of the PEFC-WAF “Best Use of Certified Timber Prize” in recent years.
It’s worth noting that in the vision of Pablo – a sustainability consultant and lecturer in Biobased Building at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands – in the essential transition towards a more bio-based, circular economy, there are tremendous opportunities for the next generation of re-growable materials (mass timber, modified wood, engineered bamboo, etc) to substitute carbon intensive, non-renewable materials such as aluminium, steel, PVC and concrete.
Not only is this a text every architect and builder in the world should absorb, it’s one that every property developer should seriously dwell on. So often we hear – even disappointedly from property developers themselves – that the transition to sustainability for the built environment is very costly.
Not as costly for the planet if the world continues to build with carbon intensive materials like concrete and steel.
Pablo is able to demonstrate that if we take into account all the costs – including the embedded carbon in buildings made of ‘non-bio materials” – timber is by far the best for the environment and the economy.
He points out in the final chapter: “Most importantly, as long as the societal costs of the environmental damage by large scale production of abiotic materials, such as concrete and steel, is not monetized, for example, through true pricing or carbon taxing, these industries will be able to keep producing at low cost, while not having to justify for the environmental damage they cause.
The game is up. Timber is the winner. And Pablo and PEFC – and people like Venturer’s Kevin Hill – are convinced that “the next building revolution” has already arrived.
Thanks to Pablo for hastening its arrival and recording so well all those who are contributing to this revolution.
There’s more to see on the Tomorrow’s Timber website.
Ken Hickson is Chairman of Sustainability Showcase Asia (SASA) in Singapore and Managing Editor of four online magazines ABC Carbon Express, Focus on Forests, The Art of Travel and the Media News Bulletin (for PEFC). He is also the author of seven books, including the landmark 2009 book “The ABC of Carbon” and “Race for Sustainability” in 2013. He is currently working with Greg Cornelius to produce an “extended reality” exhibit/tour for the London Design Festival in September, drawing on his substantial ABC Carbon content collection, combined with Protiotype’s smart-sustainable design concept for the Built Environment.