For the past century, concrete and steel have been the conventional building material in the building industry. However, timber has now started to be on the rise in being the building material of this century.

“The 17th century was the age of stone, the 18th century was the peak of brick. The 19th century was the era of iron. The 20th century was the century of concrete. The 21st century will be the time for timber” said de Rijke (Frearson, 2015)

“For the last century there has been no reason to challenge steel and concrete as the essential structural materials of large buildings. Climate change now demands that we do” (Green, 2012)

There’s a global movement around the world which involves environmentalist, scientist, and much more. Each and every one of them are trying to cope with the climate change. The building industry has their own role to play. They started to come out with more environmental friendly solutions to building and construction and one of them being the usage of timber as a construction material. Timber is definitely the long term approach them you can employ. It stores carbon, a residential apartment of 9 stories height could store 20 years worth of carbon emission. If for instance the building is no longer needed, timber used can be recycled to be made into other new buildings. I feel like it would be greater if we could use timber without any metal joints! Then it would literally be 100% made out of natural material! Traditional timber joints have been there for hundreds of years. However it was forgotten, this may be the time to revive them! We should start exploring how we could infuse traditional timber joints into massive timber construction.

When thinking of designing in an environmental friendly approach, architect has always came up with solutions related to the outer layer of the building. This can be seen in the invention of environmental friendly glazing, optimizing natural lighting and natural ventilation to reduce energy usage and much more. However, they forget about the core of the building itself. Changing the usage of the core building itself would make a huge change to the environment. Its time to swap concrete and steel with timber.

Timber, being associated with human ; are so much alike with each other. Both breaths, age and grow. It ages beautifully making it not necessary to have finishes. It can be left bare, embracing its natural beauty. It is unique and special, each timber has its own character and can never be identical with each other. I see timber as something alive, something that has a soul. Something that we need in our ever growing cities!