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Timber - understanding the material

It is perhaps understandable that many material
specialists and architects remain cautious about the use
of timber as a structural entity in buildings.

Timber is, by its very nature, variable, complex and can
lack the precise control offered by steel and concrete for
example.

Take Maria featured right, many architects and designers
would be surprised to learn that it offers 353 square
metres of accommodation, however, Gloria, our largest
standard building can fit almost two Maria’s inside its
footprint and the structural strength comes from timber.

Why then are architects, specialists, designers and
planning authorities so cautious about timber in a
building? After all, log homes have been built as
permanent structures for over 500 years, with only little
change in the basic principles of design, manufacture
and erection?

We believe that materials such as OSB, chipbard, CLT -
as man-made materials have known and established
behaviours and can conform to known and specified
standards.

That said, as manufactured items their carbon footprint
is going to be higher than conventional timber sections
but still less than other traditional building materials.

Architects seem content to plan large scale projects
using novel timber materials, with no real track record of
long term performance, projects like the 10 storey 121
unit at Dalston Lane designed by Waugh Thistleton, built
using CLT from the first floor. Yet shy away from using
timber in homes generally?

Interestingly, were Dalston Lane to have been presented
to planners today it would not have gained approved in
its current guise due to concerns with fire and use of
timber externally.

Ritsu use solid round logs for homes and holiday homes
with diameters ranging from 190 mm to 250 mm. If using
square logs then these are 202 mm glulam beams and
our buildings can feature either to suit your own design
requirements.

Figure 5. Maria - Log Home, Holiday Home
Each log is structural and forms the basis of the design
itself, greatly simplifying the manufacturing process.