connotation poplar wood

wood-design, houtinfobois, vlaanderen circulair, bos+, flanders DC

Poplar as a wood species came as a surprise to the collective, and so they embarked on a research project to change
the connotation of this supposedly inferior wood species. 

When we think of functional materials in the design, architecture and construction industries, poplar does not really come into consideration, but history tells us otherwise. From furniture for the middle classes to medieval constructions, poplar became their white sheet to work with.  As a collective we immersed our perspectives in information from academics, engineers, industry and a lot of literature. This led to experiments that examined poplar for its strongest properties. We succeeded in densifying the surface of poplar, and in identifying new areas of application in which the entire value of a tree can be processed. In doing so, we were driven to find evidence of added economic value. By implementing the surface treatment in continuous processing during planing, an existing production can apply this principle, for example, in the direction of CLT panels in wood mass construction, but also for multi-layer furniture panels from poplar. The wood species in this condition allows, due to its local and fast-growing property, to be an ideal competitor for the softwood industry.

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