I Have Seen the Future And it is Made with Wood

Authors: Piers Maclaren
Publication: New Zealand Journal of Forestry, Volume N.Z.J.For. 2012, Issue N.Z.J.For. 57(2) 2012, pp 2-3, Aug 2012
Publisher: New Zealand Institute of Forestry

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Abstract: Has wood – like wool – become a fibre of the past? Has wood, which has served us well for the million years of human history, now been supplanted by precision materials? By materials with standardised properties that engineers and architects are happy to incorporate into their designs? As I said in the book The Leading Edge: “Ever since human beings began living in houses, wood – if available – has been a preferred building material. At first, round poles were bound together to form the structure, which was often clad with such things as branches, mud, straw or hides. Later, the round poles were wastefully squared, and mortise-and-tenon joints were employed. Although more precise than poles, even a first-rate carpenter working with these rough-hewn beams would be doing well to achieve specifications of within quarter of an inch.

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