Plant a Seed. Designing with Wood and Bio-based Materials
In this new publication, Henning Larsen present an alternative, sharing their insights on designing with wood and biobased materials for significantly reduced carbon.
The global building stock is expected to grow by one-third during the next 10 years. That’s a lot of construction, which presents an even bigger opportunity to make a change.
With ‘Plant a Seed’ we aim to inspire the construction industry to explore the world of massive timber and all its potential. The publication includes a collection of projects, showcasing the versatility of wood, a deep dive into the myths that exist around wood, and finally, we offer an entire catalog of different types of wood and how to design with them.
As architects, urbanists, and landscape architects we hold ourselves accountable to fight and mitigate our industry’s effects on the climate, but we cannot do it alone. A single tree doesn’t make a forest.
Well documented by increasingly urgent IPCC reports, our global environmental challenges are colossal. While statistics certainly implicate the building industry’s shared responsibility for the crisis, (35% of CO₂ emissions, 30% of waste generated, 35% of world resources consumed) the flip side presents a powerful potential. This book addresses how through strategic decisions we can be a part of the solution and how to emerge from a crisis rather than continue to contribute to the problem. The current situation presents a myriad of opportunities to proactively utilize architecture as a solution rather than a disparaging statistic. Countries around the world have taken action to reduce emissions. For example, Denmark has a national goal to reduce the 1990 CO₂ emission levels by 70% in the next decade. 72% of a Danish concrete building’s carbon emissions are generated by the construction materials and not by the energy used. The vast majority of this impact occurs in the initial construction phase. Within the building industry we can address this by optimizing the buildings we design and thereby directly reducing energy and material consumption.
Countries around the world have taken action to reduce emissions. For example, Denmark has a national goal to reduce the 1990 CO₂ emission levels by 70% in the next decade. 72% of a Danish concrete building’s carbon emissions are generated by the construction materials and not by the energy used. The vast majority of this impact occurs in the initial construction phase. Within the building industry we can address this by optimizing the buildings we design and thereby directly reducing energy and material consumption.
Henning Larsen attaches great importance to designing environmentally friendly, healthy, low carbon and resourceful solutions. Incorporating conscious material decisions into building processes has never been more important. To build in wood and other organic materials is not just a choice — it is responding to an urgent need to avoid a worsening of the climate crisis. Wood and other organic materials can solve many of the problems which the building industry is facing today due to the material’s ability to sequester carbon in its growth phase. Designing with structural timber elements from certified managed forests is a way to align our projects with the recommendations of the IPCC scientists. We can create a dramatic reduction of carbon emitted in the construction phase as well as provide a constructed carbon storage bank. Henning Larsen is building in wood with conviction as this is one way to ensure our future.
