We often advocate that we should be incorporating wood, views of trees, wood grain, wood textures and wood veneers into our built environment as part of a Biophilic Design solution and we might also understand why from a psychological point of view and have discussed that elsewhere, but the question is HOW should we be selecting woods to incorporate, what woods should we use for instance for flooring, are they different to those used for outside timbers, are they sustainable? This is a definitive podcast on all things wood and trees. We were lucky to speak with Criswell Davis, TED speaker and internationally recognised expert on American Hardwood. He is also co-founder of the Timber and Forestry Foundation, President of Mighty Oaks Consulting and lectures all over the world on Biophilic Design and how we should be incorporating wood into our built environment. In this podcast, he shares with us, his very personal journey, and how a healthcare issue led him first-hand to experience the very big difference Biophilia made to his recovery.
At 5.50, Criswell describes the beauty of wood, how these slow-growing majestic entities are doing good things for the environment, how they absorb carbon, and he celebrates their sustainability and aesthetics. He goes on to share his personal journey here, how he had been in an ICU surrounded by nothing other than stainless steel and tubes, how it was “terrifying”. He contrasts that with a subsequent experience, also as a result of cancer, where he woke up in a completely different environment, which was clad in wood and looking out onto trees. He felt “intrinsically and viscerally” that this environment was better. He later was invited back to where he had his first hospital stay to give advice on how to design the space better. Along with other patients they all chose the mood boards with trees, wood, views of nature.
Maggie’s cancer care centres are discussed in this podcast there and at 57:42 as well (see here for our podcast with the CEO Dame Laura Lee or search for it in your RSS feed here). We don’t just talk about wood, he also mentions that they installed a 4K video loop of the sky for people about to go into a CAT scan (something we do too here the JBD as part of our Virtual Nature Walls movement).
His knowledge of trees, wood, veneers, finishes, biophilic design and sustainable aspect of forestry and the lumber business, was wonderful and I’d like to highlight his discussion from 21:50. He describes how both humans and trees are 60% water, 18% carbon, and reach the peak of life at 80 years, when we become more susceptible to issues, less productive, just like trees. He mentions the book “Search for the Mother Tree”, which highlights how the whole forest is connected, and how younger or sicker trees are cared for. He celebrates that the most important job trees have in the biosphere is to absorb carbon. How we live in symbiosis with the trees: we breathe out Carbon dioxide, the trees breathe it in, and give us back oxygen. The trees then hang on to the carbon which is then sequestered and kept forever in kiln-dried lumber. And when the trees have done all their brilliant work, and it’s time to render them into beautiful pieces of furniture, flooring, and cabinetry we can then still live with that end product from the trees.
At 29:00 Criswell urges designers to add “the beauty of wood to your artist palette”, and especially please avoid all woods which come from around the world and cannot be certified as legally harvested. “It is incumbent on all of us to check the legal custodianship of the wood you’re using, is it FSC (or other internationally recognised body) certified.”
25:22 he explores the cell structure of woods, including the difference between white and red oak… and how white oak was used in ships and barrels, how the trees draw up nutrients and also at 31:23 how the JANKA scale is used to measure the softness or hardness of woods (which will help you choose which wood to put where in your designs), at 45:30 he discusses how technology is being used in the industry including generating microthin veneers can be used, but of course only if the substrates are non-toxic.
There is so much more in this podcast, if you use woods in your practice, this is definitely one to listen to. Reach out to Criswell and also email us too to share any designs where you have used wood in offices, homes, schools, healthcare facilities, we’d love to hear from you.
To connect with Criswell visit: criswell@mightyoaksconsulting.com
https://timberandforestry.org/
And look out for his article in the forthcoming PRINTED and ONLINE edition of The Journal of Biophilic Design.
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Credits: with thanks to George Harvey Audio Production for the calming biophilic soundscape that backs all our podcasts.
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