WisBusiness: Whole Trees aspires to produce next generation of green buildings

By Andrea Snow

For WisBusiness.com

The common childhood dream of living in a tree house may be becoming a reality. Using innovative design, as well as locally sourced, sustainably harvested material, Wisconsin-based Whole Trees Architecture and Structures is creating the next generation of green buildings.

Whole Trees uses dried and preserved small diameter trees, called whole round timber, which is conventionally a waste material. Using whole round timber merges two solutions for some of the housing industry’s leading issues: material supply and cost, and a demand for environmental responsibility.

“The challenges are two-fold; global commodity prices and supply chains are less secure, and the constituency is asking for a greener product,” explained Whole Trees co-founder Amelia Baxter. “We needed a product for the 21st Century.”

The conventional architectural use of trees is as milled lumber. Milled lumber, however, loses much of its strength when the outer layers of the trunk are removed to produce square beams. In fact, research on the natural strength of whole round timber has proven its strength to be 50 percent greater than milled lumber.

Whole round timber is also superior to milled lumber in respect to forest management. Instead of clear-cutting an area of forest, each tree is specifically chosen for structural and design integrity, as well as its impact on the surrounding forest. The removal of selected trees enhances the health of the forest by encouraging the growth of mature trees, preventing over-crowding and reducing the threat of disease and wildfire.

“Whole Trees truly impacts the way forests are managed. It make them more economically valuable, which leads people to care for them,” explained Baxter. “The idea is of gardening forests instead of mining them.”

Other environmental benefits include the sequestration of carbon dioxide, as compared with the production of steel and concrete which are major carbon producers. Whole round timber also has the advantage of being vastly more abundant than millable old growth timber, and less ecologically damaging to harvest. Using regionally sourced building materials also reduces the economic and environmental costs of transportation.

Whole Trees is unique in its ability to satisfy both environmental and economic goals. By using sustainably and regionally produced building materials, risks from volatile costs and uncertain supply chains are avoided.

Outside studies have indicated that Whole Trees’ structural systems can compare with steel and concrete on pricing and can often reduce construction time. It may also be safer in the event of fire and more resilient in earthquakes than concrete.

Partnering with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Whole Trees is using state of the art technology to test the strength of a tree’s natural branching connections. Structural testing has already ascertained that whole round timber also holds up to corrosion better than steel or concrete, making it a smart choice for coastal areas, bridges, and parking ramps.

Founded in 2007 by Roald Gunderson and Baxter, Whole Trees is based in the western Wisconsin community of Stoddard and has constructed dozens of commercial and residential buildings. The firm is seeking $1,150,000 in capital investments, according to information prepared for the 2011 Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium.

With this investment from early stage investors, the company will continue building “regional infrastructure and then scale by replicating production models across the U.S. beginning with the Pacific Northwest and Rockies,” according to a 2011 executive summary.

Within five years, Whole Trees is looking to standardize its product line and expand nationwide. Standardization will allow whole round timber architecture to be connected to and integrated with other structural systems and materials. With a standardized product, the whole round timber could be more widely used in urban commercial and industrial settings.

To see a Whole Trees structure in Madison, visit Troy Community Gardens. The greenhouse, built in 2010, incorporates whole round timber to create a space for raised beds and extended season gardening. More information about Whole Trees Architecture, and a gallery of their work, can be found at http://www.wholetreesarchitecture.com.

— Snow is a student in the UW-Madison Department of Life Sciences Communication.