Collaborate Disseminate
By manipulating the complex makeup of wood, scientists have demonstrated how it can be made see-through and even store and release heat. New research is expanding the trickery of traditional timber even further, by showing how tweaks to its composition… Continue reading Luminescent wood can light up a room
High-profile architecture firm Snøhetta has been commissioned to design the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota. The project will rise out of the landscape like a large grassy hill and feature an expansive green roof on whic… Continue reading Teddy Roosevelt library will rise out of the North Dakota Badlands
The large carbon footprint of concrete and steel paired with a growing emphasis on sustainable design has architects increasingly turning to timber as a construction material, with a number of hybrid wooden towers taking shape around the world. They wi… Continue reading World’s tallest hybrid timber tower set for Sydney
Following its Pritzker Prize win, concrete connoisseur Grafton Architects isn’t creating another beautiful stone building as you might expect given its previous output. Instead, the Irish firm has designed a light-filled all-timber college research bui… Continue reading Grafton Architects’ college building highlights versatility of wood
Following an architecture competition, Dialog, along with EllisDon and Smoke Architecture, has been commissioned to design the Centennial College A Block Expansion Building. Due for completion in 2023, it’s described by the architects as Canada’s first… Continue reading Zero carbon, timber college building offers lesson in sustainability
When it comes to building materials, wood doesn’t always draw the most attention as the strongest in the bunch. That honor usually goes to concrete and steel – steel embedded in concrete provides support and a foundation for tall buildings, while concrete increases tensile strength and can be formed into …read more
Continue reading Advanced Timber Architecture Gives New Life to Wooden Structures
Moisture is usually bad news for timber, at least if you plan to use it for building purposes. This is largely because it can cause the material to crack and warp as it dries out, features hardly conducive to the idea of structural integrity…. Continue reading "World-first" twisting tower is made from timber that bends itself into shape
Audacious times generate audacious efforts, especially when national pride and security are perceived to be at stake. Such was the case in the 1950s and 1960s, with the Space Race that started with a Russian sphere whizzing around the planet and ended with Neil Armstrong’s footprint on the Moon. But at the same time, other efforts were underway to answer big questions of national import, such as determining how durable the United States’ strategic assets were, and whether they could withstand the known effects of electromagnetic pulse (EMP), a high-intensity burst of electromagnetic energy that could potentially disable a plane …read more
Continue reading How to Test a B-52 Against EMP: Project ATLAS-I
The title of ‘maker’ is conventionally applied to the young-adult age group. In the case of 84 year-old Ralph Affleck, a lifelong sawmiller, ‘maker’ perhaps undersells the accomplishment of building a fully functioning sawmill that can be operated by a single individual.
Starting in the trade at the age of 16 under his father’s tutelage, fifty years of working in sawmills saw him still loving what he did as retirement loomed. So, with pen, paper, and a simple school ruler he designed the entire shop from scratch. Decades of expertise working with wood allowed him to design the machines to …read more
