R-Values Are Not Our Values: Thermal Design of Timber Buildings

Designing Matter, Energy and sustainability, Essay, Kiel Moe, No Density, Wood Urbanism

Architecture, Carbon footprint, Carbon-emissions, Conductivity, Cross Laminated Timber, Density, Design strategies, Designing Matter, Ecology, Effusivity, Essay, Exergy, Heat transfer, Insulation, Interaction, Knowledge, Materials, Multi-scalar, Multidisciplinary, Performance, Performative Envelope, Space-body relationship, Temperature, Thermal comfort, Thermodynamic practices, Thermodynamics, Timber, Waste generation, Wood, Wood construction

Excerpt from Wood Urbanism by Daniel Ibañez, Jane Hutton and Kiel Moe. Published by Actar Publishers.
Excerpt from: Wood Urbanism, 2019 -- https://actar.com/product/wood-urbanism/

Among the many mutual relationships in the scales of timber dynamics articulated throughout this book, the thermal propensities of wood are perhaps the most immediately sensible to us. There are a number of physiological reciprocities between our bodies and massive timber buildings. Among them is the often colloquial, but quantifiable, association of “warmth” with wood. The thermal properties and behaviors specific to wood are not fully articulated in building science or in the wood industry, but they could impact how we come to characterize the thermodynamics, thermal potential, and ecologies of timber building.