Trend: “Carved out of Wood”

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trend - Das österreichische Wirtschaftsmagazin / Authorship with the publisher

Although wood is not associated with the destruction of nature, it is often labeled as being "cheap", "not very durable" and "poor". It was once the material in times of need. However, as a building material, the pure natural product should not be despised. Since wood breathes, it is an optimal climate regulator. Even thin wooden walls insulate well and these thermal insulations are sufficient. Additionally, many people think of wood as cozy and quaint in comparison to steel, glass, and concrete. A wooden atrium house was build in Kuchl near Salzburg that transcends beyond any sort of romantic ideals of a log cabin.  The architect couple, Christine and Horst Lechner, mainly used larch and spruce wood and utilized industrial multi-layer boards for special, accented areas. The frame of the construction was made from larch wood. The horizontal circuit is also made of larch wood that will slowly develop a weathered, gray appearance over the years. The house combines the cold north side and has not a single window in this direction. The insulation was created through recycling old paper. Paper granules were provided with a binding agent and then injected into cavities of the house. The construction cost of the house, which contains 240 square meters of living space and houses a family of five, was limited to less than 20,000 Schillings (c. 1,500 EUR) per square meter