Design Advantages
Taking the contemporary uses and applications of wood into consideration, show exactly why wood is the building material of our time.
Aesthetic Appeal
The aesthetic appeal of timber based construction is witnessing a continuous increase in demand for innovative wood designs. The beauty of wood lies in the fact that it engages our senses like no other. Warm, rich and affecting, its surface is marked by tactile and sensuous strength. On the other hand, wide range of wood hues and the depth of individual grains enchants the onlooker. Plywood’s appeal in design & construction is natural, as all of these sensual elements are present even when we build with wood.
Wood structures combine aesthetics & strength, thermal insulation & environmental benefits to create spaces of enchanting form & function.
Innovative Products
Engineered wood products lead the charge in innovation, helping create wood structures which are strong, & beautiful. Whether in its natural form, or as an engineered wood product (EWP), we can always find a wood based building material to meet the requirements for an ever increasing range of applications. The most recent launch of EWPs are breaking convention & expanding the application of wood from the typical to the extraordinary.
With time building/construction industry is recognizing the results from working with eco-friendly & sustainably sourced products which combine aesthetics with sound structural properties. Products that allow efficient & cost effective construction of strong wood based structures.
For example, taking structures like the Stadthaus, based in london which is a nine story building and considered the tallest residential timber – based structure in the world. Built almost entirely with pre-fabricated cross laminated timber panels (CLT), it took five people only nine weeks to build. While the savings in construction and labour costs are significant enough in themselves, when combined with the savings in carbon emissions through the use of non traditional construction techniques (estimated at 125 tonnes), in addition to the effect of the timber construction’s carbon sequestration (estimated at more than 181 tonnes of carbon), it becomes really clear that innovative wood products like Cross Laminated Timber Panels are taking sustainable structural design to new heights.
For more information on wood products like CLT panels, take a look her at Cross-laminated Timber..
Manufacturing Efficiency & Flexibility
Wood is strong, lightweight & even flexible, making wood based construction simple and safer than alternate building materials. Choosing wood avoids the need of heavy lifting & large cranes to secure materials onsite, making construction sites safer work places. Apart from that, the range of wood based products such as plywoods can be easily shaped and machined onsite, allowing significant benefits for project management and turnaround times.
Advances in technology have allowed quicker & more accurate installations of engineered wood products. Manufacturers now use high tech pre-fabrication which guarantees accuracy & enables rapid construction. Pre-fabricated LVL building systems can be used for both multi-storey commercial & residential buildings.
On the other hand, most of other alternate building materials like steel must be fabricated & finished in a factory before they can be brought to the site for assembly. Alternatively, while timber based LVL is assembled with standard fittings such as nails and bolts, steel requires a specialist contractor onsite, adding costs and time to any project.
Briefly, wood based products offers a lot of efficiency & flexibility which its common alternatives such as steel just cannot match. Steel or similar materials generally require much more equipment, more contractors to handle them, apart from the needed offsite fabrication & finishing, which ultimately result in increased labour costs and time.
