DANZER BLOG

For decades, if not centuries, human architecture was driven by the willingness to make bold statements to leave a mark for the builder and for the architect. As a result, we have plastered our environment with huge boxes that were build with cold, in-human materials. Driving through large metropolitan areas or through small towns, concrete boxes are everywhere. We have used brutal architecture with brutal materials to destroy our living spaces and turn them into anonymous places that make us sick.

Apart from the carbon-disaster of concrete, our building materials of the past created spaces that feel cold. Many materials for interior decoration were developed to overcome the underlying problem: Our building structures are made with ceramic- or stone-based materials. None of our ancestors would have built their shelter on stone.

In the past years, there is a trend evolving that tries to reverse the mistakes of the past: Biophilic Architecture. Here, the inspiration comes from Mother Nature: What did Nature do to solve a specific problem? With millions of years of trial-and-error, Nature found amazing solutions to structural and decorative solutions. If we turn to Nature to answer questions regarding our living environment, we can only be amazed over and over again about Nature’s ingenuity and creativity.
Needless to say: natural solutions are carbon-friendly, “circular-economy”-based and sustainable. Wood plays an important role in finding new solutions that answer the many challenges of the present and the future.

It goes without saying that we cannot continue to build with the mix of building materials of the past. Wood will have to play an ever-growing part of the future of our buildings. And the amazing thing: not only do wooden structures store carbon, we also feel better and live healthier in a wood environment!