Inaugural address Alex de Rijke: A wood taxonomy for a carbon tax economy
The world’s oldest and most used building material is now fashionable again, after a period of over 250 years of being ignored or scorned. After 25 years of personally trying to persuade the profession, clients and industry to use wood for many reasons, professor Alex de Rijke finally sees it emerging, ‘like Phoenix from the ashes of a coal fire’. De Rijke will deliver his inaugural address ‘A wood taxonomy for a carbon tax economy’ on Friday 25 October.
There’s more to wood than carbon hoarding. For example, the aesthetics of wood is what draws people to the material in the first place. De Rjke: ‘The unpredictable variety of scale and grain pattern, texture, colour, and the endless ways in which wood can be used in construction make it a compulsive attraction. But architects rarely talk about aesthetics with clients. It’s one of those subject matters that is either a given or taboo, like taste in furniture or why one should include a bidet in a bathroom design.’
Sensual qualities
The sense of well-being wood can provide is created by connecting with more of the senses than purely visual. Sensual qualities of touch, sound and smell are all provoked by proximity to wood, sensations that combine with seeing beauty. But it is wood’s visible connection with nature, its overt references to tropes of nature that triggers our notions of beauty. Aristotle states that mimesis is a natural instinct of humanity that separates humans from animals and that all human artistry "follows the pattern of nature".
The era of bio-based construction material
‘Architecture, now driven by climate change guilt and the quest for carbon reduction, is once again full of wooden intentions and inventions. The 21st century is set to be the era of bio-based construction materials, and particularly of engineered timber, currently the only real structural rival to concrete,’ states de Rijke. At TUDelft, Prof. de Rijke’s new role is given space and support to develop his 2004 mantra, ‘Timber is the new Concrete’, and the many reasons for using wood.
More information
- Alex de Rijke will deliver his inaugural address ‘A wood taxonomy for a carbon tax economy’ on Friday 25 October at 15:00 in the auditorium in TU Delft's Aula.
- View the professor page of Alex de Rijke here.