Blog: Transparent wood

Even for architectural innovation, the place to look is Netflix, discovered blogger Oscar

Architecture is cool and the Brits are entertaining. Combine the two and you get one of Netflix’s better series: The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes. In each episode you are guided through several unusual homes by a prizewinning architect and the most British presenter they could find. The fascinating thing is that the intention behind a house is completely different in each country.

In the woods of Norway, the goal is to blend into the surroundings as much as possible; in some old Swiss villages there is a ‘roof code’ for what your roof must look like; and the ultimate feat in Japan is to make optimal use of space in a small house.

In the woods of Norway, the goal is to blend into the surroundings as much as possible

The demand for a steady stream of new ideas makes the world of architecture a breeding ground for innovation. To give an example, research has been going on for a few years on how to make wood transparent. You start by boiling a flat piece of wood in a tub of water containing sodium hydroxide, which causes the lignin in the wood to dissolve. It is the lignin that gives wood its brown colour. The result is that the wood turns a pale whitish colour. Then the wood is drenched in epoxy, which reacts with the wood fibres in the places where the lignin was, creating channels that light can shine through and making the piece of wood practically transparent. 

Although this can still only be done on a small scale at the moment, it’s fun to fantasize about what you could do with this technique in the future. The transparent wood could be used instead of glass, for example. You might use it in a window, or for your car windscreen, or in greenhouses.

It’s fun to fantasize about what you could do with transparant wood in the future.

Wood insulates much better than glass, storing solar energy during the day and releasing it at night. You can therefore use it to insulate houses in both hot and cold climates. Transparent wood would let the light in, but keep out the heat and the cold. Also, the wood becomes more transparent the hotter it gets, so it is more see-through by day than by night, which is useful for privacy. 

And lastly, the material is as good as unbreakable. Who knows, in a few years we might have wooden screen protectors. Let’s hope they can make them splinter-proof.

Oscar Delissen is a third-year bachelor’s student in Food Technology. He enjoys cooking with sharp knives and colourful festival shirts.

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