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

Archive, Contributors, Densities, Designing Matter, Energy and sustainability, Essay, Formats, Kiel Moe, No Density, Topics, 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.

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Wastiels, Lisa, et al. “Relating Material Experience to Technical Parameters: A Case Study on Visual and Tactile Warmth Perception of Indoor Wall Materials.” Building and Environment, vol. 49, 2012, p. 360.

Obata, Yoshiro, et al. “Engineering Evaluation of Tactile Warmth for Wood” International Journal of the Society of Material Engineering for Resources, vol. 10, no. 1, 2002, p. 16.

Hameury, Stéphane, and Tor Lundström. “Contribution of Indoor Exposed Massive Wood to a Good Indoor Climate: In Situ Measurement Campaign.” Energy and Buildings, vol. 36, no. 3, 2004, pp. 281–92.

Hameury, Stéphane. “Moisture Buffering Capacity of Heavy Timber Structures Directly Exposed to an Indoor Climate: A Numerical Study,” Building and Environment, vol. 40, 2005, pp. 1400–412.

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.