The SiOO X Story – Protecting the Planet - Book - Page 16
ucts and construction systems designed to deliver sustainable
21st century solutions to rural and urban building challenges.
We now think differently about timber buildings: not only in the
emergence over the past decade in proposals for seriously tall
timber residential and commercial structures, but in the conception of building forms and shapes never previously possible
with wood but now enabled by parametric design, computer
numerical control (CNC) cutting machines and robotic techno
logy. Globally, perceptions of wood construction have been revolutionised: its status as the planet’s foremost renewable building
material now make it a key element in the implementation of a
genuinely Circular Economy for the built environment.
vations in modern timber design: it seeks instead to provide a
context for architects, engineers, property developers, planners,
building inspectors, building owners and, indeed, the general
public, to understand the need, the role and the value of wood
protection and the distinction to be made between this and
wood preservation. In doing so, the themes of modern timber
architecture and engineering as well as developments in timber
manufacturing technology will re-appear throughout this book,
coupled with how SiOO:X products combine successfully with
these to address increasingly important – and urgent – environ
mental concerns.
SiOO:X, is very much a creation of its time: designed to make a
positive contribution to the built environment through a scien
tific appreciation of nature and the many lessons it offers to us
to make healthier and more ecological use of the planet’s resources. As the company enters its third decade of production,
this book aims to illuminate to others the culture that pervades
every aspect of thinking within the Sioo organisation: a culture
that is fundamentally about how, in responding to change, we
– as a global society – might rediscover the essential umbilical
relationship between humankind and nature.
The second, and an increasingly powerful lobby for change, has
been the widespread growth in concern for the environment and
the health of our planet. The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development makes clear that environmental, social and economic
sustainability objectives cannot be separated and catalogues 17
inter-related goals to be achieved over the next decade. How
these will be delivered on a universal basis has yet to be seen,
but it is clear that modern timber construction and the range of
supportive sustainable products have the potential to play critical
roles in the fulfilment of the majority of these aspirations.
This book is not intended to precis the history of timber architecture nor to catalogue the extent and impact of recent inno-
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