Wood

While many people love kicking back and relaxing into an expansive armchair made of plush material, owning such a thing isn't always practical, and is rarely cheap. Armchairs are generally heavy, (almost) immovable, and designed with just one purpose in mind. LLSTOL is a piece of furniture which goes against this grain, being light, highly portable, and adaptable for a variety of different uses.  Read More

Getting a wind turbine to a decent height to allow it to reach stronger winds than those found closer to the ground generally means sitting them atop a tower. Despite the eco-credentials of wind turbines, these towers are usually constructed from steel, which is not only expensive, but requires large amounts of energy to process. In an effort to make wind turbines even greener, German company TimberTower has erected a wooden 1.5-MW wind turbine in Hannover, Germany.  Read More

The rate at which children grow, especially from being new-born to the age of around six-years-old, is scary. One day they're a helpless ball of flesh and bones, the next they're walking, talking, and starting school. This means that new parents have to continually buy new things for their child that may only last them a matter of months. While a bicycle may not be top of the agenda at such a young age, for a child to learn to ride one means buying several different models over the course of just a few years as they first learn, and then master, the art. Which is what led Noelia Vallano Alvaro to design B'kid: one bike designed to last a child from the age of two right through to the age of six.  Read More

The organic quality of wood causes almost anything made from it to seem somehow classier, whether we’re talking about bicycle frames, computers or earbuds. For the really organic look, however, it’s best to leave the wood as close to its natural state as possible. That’s what European designer Floris Wubben has done with his Stripped lamp, which is made from a single tree branch.  Read More

Usually when we think of materials that can be used in 3D printers, we think of substances that can be melted, like plastic or resin. What we don't think of is wood. Nonetheless, a new product allows users to create 3D-printed wooden objects ... depending on how you define “wooden.”  Read More

For the most part, furniture tends to be pretty fixed once the decision has been made on where to place it in the home. Buy a table and at the end of the day the odds are it's still a table, sitting in the same spot and serving the same function. A chair? The same thing. But Studio Gorm’s Wood Peg furniture concept provides a little more flexibility in furnishing your home. And when a particular piece of furniture isn’t in use, it can be deconstructed and its various bits and pieces hung on the wall where it could, in the eyes of some, become a work of art.  Read More

The Forest Products Laboratory of the US Forest Service has opened a US$1.7 million pilot plant for the production of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) from wood by-products materials such as wood chips and sawdust. Prepared properly, CNCs are stronger and stiffer than Kevlar or carbon fibers, so that putting CNC into composite materials results in high strength, low weight products. In addition, the cost of CNCs is less than ten percent of the cost of Kevlar fiber or carbon fiber. These qualities have attracted the interest of the military for use in lightweight armor and ballistic glass (CNCs are transparent), as well as companies in the automotive, aerospace, electronics, consumer products, and medical industries.  Read More

We have seen wooden-framed computers before, although those have generally been off-the-shelf machines that have simply received a steampunk makeover. A team of engineers from Ireland’s MicroPro Computers and Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration have gone considerably farther, however. Their wood-bodied iameco (“I am eco”) v3 touchscreen computer reportedly has 70 percent less carbon footprint than a regular desktop PC with a monitor.  Read More

Griffin Technologies has just released some new eye- and ear-pleasing earbud-type earphones that come with a slice of eco-friendliness, too. The outer housing of the WoodTones Earbuds is made from bits of exotic scrapwoods rescued from the workshop floors of furniture and cabinet makers, which is said to add volume without distortion or coloring while also bringing mid-range frequencies to the fore and delivering even, solid bass.  Read More