74 | Feature: Red Oak Glulam
◄ Fundamentally Vert is about urban greening, bringing natural havens into our town and city spaces. It is effectively a giant – 10m x 10m x 10m – demountable pergola, a frame supporting hemp netting up which can twine fast-growing plants, bedded in planters and specifically chosen for their resilience and wildlife appeal.
The result is an oasis of green that can be set up in areas where it’s impractical to plant trees and other greenery. It provides habitats for insect life and consequently a food source for birds and other animals. For human urban dwellers it creates an area of welcome shelter, shade and daily contact with nature, with the well-being benefits that has been shown to bring.
Coming up with the Vert concept was a joint endeavour of German industrial designers Diez Office (DO) and urban greening specialists OMC°C. The third lead partner in developing the project and bringing it to this year’s LDF was the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), which introduces that other critical element, the material Vert is constructed in.
AHEC’s role is to develop the market for US hardwoods. That includes supporting projects that broaden their range of applications. At the same time, while growing use of these timbers, with all the carbon and wider environmental benefits that can bring to manufacturing and construction, the aim is ensuring the long-term resilience of the forest resource.
In recent years, the European market has homed in increasingly on a handful of US hardwoods, a fashion trend which has bred familiarity and perhaps a reluctance to try something different. But, says AHEC, for the long-term future of the forest, the biodiversity it supports and its wider environmental values, we must use the full spectrum of species. Using a favoured few risks putting these under supply stress, not to mention limiting overall hardwood availability and market choice. It is increasingly recognised that we need to use more timber and fewer energy intensive, high embodied carbon materials to help combat climate change. But it has to be sustainably sourced. That, says AHEC, means using what the US hardwood forest sustainably provides. It means working in tune with nature. Vert brings these strands together. It is constructed in red oak, one of those US species that is less widely used in Europe, yet is hugely abundant, comprising 18% of the US hardwood forest. Moreover, it is red oak in an engineered, or mass timber format – glulam.
Top: The timber is connected using NH’s GSA joint system in galvanised steel Centre: The frame supports hemp netting up which can twine fast-growing plants, bedded in planters
Above: Vert can be set up in areas where it’s impractical to plant trees and other greenery TTJ | November/December 2024 |
www.ttjonline.com
AHEC initiated a previous LDF installation trialling red oak glulam. Timber Wave comprised a web of slender laminated, finger- jointed elements creating a curving portal around the entrance of the V&A museum.
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