STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS WITH TRANSPARENT WOOD IN ARCHITECTURE

What is it about?

Transparent wood is a relatively new material. For the fi rst time, it was created in 1992 by a German researcher Siegfried Fink. Back then he turned wood transparent to reveal its specifi c cavities for analytical purpose. But it was not until between 2015 and 2016 when Professor Lars Berglund from Swedish KTH University and Professor Liangbing Hu from University of Maryland developed a method to remove colour and some chemicals from small wood samples and added polymers to make it transparent. The material then has the higher strength than original wood while having a 90% transparency. In the future it can be used as an ecological building material which is signifi cantly more biodegradable than plastic or glass. In the present article, examples of the possible use of transparent wood in the construction of structural elements in architecture are given. Examples of beam type load bearing elements and structural parts of the wall structures with use of transparent wood are presented.

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Why is it important?

Transparent wood is a material which has a great potential to be used in architectural projects worldwide. The composite is not only translucent but also stronger than original wood and polymers that are used at its creation. Its fabrication will be cheaper than fabrication of glass according to scientists who have already researched it and transparent wood will also be more ecologically friendly as they have said. At a current level of knowledge, it cannot fully replace glass as a transparent material in buildings because right now transparent wood is not really transparent, it is rather translucent, but it can be used in situations where total transparency is not required or where it is actually not wanted, yet a natural light is needed. This composite should also be more resistant than regular wood due to a replacement of lignin bypolymer. On top of that it can also be used as a structural material because of its outstanding properties, and as such, transparent wood could become much desired. Imagining its subtle appearance it would add an incredible lightness to an overall structure of a building. This way new architectures could emerge that would not only be beautiful, functional and durable but also more ecological.

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