Material Value(s): Motivating the architectural application of waste wood

Abstract

At present, wood is in focus, with many sectors striving to capitalise on its renewability for reducing environmental impacts. Whilst wood offers incredible capabilities, attitudes are conflicted over how best we should manage our expectations of forests, and subsequently, how to value wood. The paper highlights current research into the barriers for a more circular practice of wood, notably defects, that inhibit the reuse of wood in its solid form. The theoretical context for the paper, material agency, provides a framework for discussing the development of closer connections between the heterogeneous material traits found in waste wood, and architecture. This theoretical approach, alongside the motivations from current research form the basis of two 1:1 practice-based waste wood prototypes, that depart from the function of a glulam beam, and a CLT (Cross Laminated Timber) wall. As architectural elements, they aim to integrate inherited material traits, recognising waste wood’s agency in the dialogue between designer and material. The prototypes demonstrate a potential for waste wood to replace virgin material in typical structural functions, as well as offering new aesthetics, that maintain the waste stream’s identity. In conclusion, the paper highlights avenues for further research to enable integrating wood’s agency in sustainable approaches to timber construction.