For nearly a century now, concrete and steel have become the main ways we construct buildings. For many years, the fear of attack by foreign enemies and/or simply the strength of the materials themselves have been seen as incredibly useful compared to traditional stick and timber buildings.
This is true to a major extent, as concrete is among the strongest and cheapest materials available today. Steel also is incredibly strong, being one of the most widely used in construction, civilian or otherwise. However, the long-term effects of using these materials have been rearing their ugly heads.
Steel is incredibly carbon-intensive in its production, and concrete is no better. They both contribute significantly to the continued destruction of our planet and our environment, and it’s high time we switch to something more sustainable. Thankfully, it seems that mother nature already has us covered in that regard providing a material that has been used for thousands of years in construction. That material is timber.
Carbon is a major global issue; we produce tons yearly. We continue to do so because many of the comforts we take for granted in our day-to-day life are either powered by the burning of fossil fuels, manufactured using machines that burn fossil fuels or created by the extraction of fossil fuels from the ground. This is a significant problem; however, it would be lessened by the ability to scale the carbon we produce with the number of carbon sinks that absorb and store it.
These carbon sinks are trees, and even after the manufacturing process into timber, they still store a significant amount of carbon in their bodies. These trees can be used in incredibly different ways now than what was available 100 years ago. Wood can now be processed into what is called mass timber, which is as strong as steel or concrete and can even be manufactured to be fire-resistant. So not only can we build the structures at the scale we wish to, as we do today, but we can also store all that carbon that otherwise would be produced by steel or concrete.
Wood is also significantly lighter than concrete or steel, making the creation of pre-fabricated structures economically viable. Mass timber is also comparable to steel and concrete in the construction industry. It can be competitive with these conventional materials requiring less manpower and less heavy equipment. Timber construction is also really good for our local economies, as only specific areas can create steel and concrete in abundance. This means that this can jump-start the creation of jobs in communities working to create timber.
Timber is also healthier for the humans living in the structures built with it. A growing body of evidence suggests that humans, like many other creatures, are biophilic, meaning that our well-being and mental health improves when we are in areas that are built in tandem with nature.
As we move forward in the 21st century, what we cannot afford to do is continue the way we do things business as usual. We have become very sick with the way we construct our lives, from the buildings we occupy right down to the actions we take in our day-to-day lives. The benefits in the construction industry are mounting, and the costs are already decreasing.
From carbon storage to the durability of the material, we can easily identify the ways that building with timber makes more sense than using steel or concrete. It is humorous that, after all, nature herself is now showing how we should have been building things all along.
