Product Review

Unmilled Timber Frames Go High Tech, Replacing Steel

Keep the beauty of round logs, and get more strength from an engineered wood structure, promises Wisconsin-based company WholeTrees.

Round, unmilled timber might seem obsolete, but by using high-tech scanning and modeling, one company is bringing this form back into designers’ repertoires at a cost that can compete with steel. And we’re not just talking for a rustic log cabin aesthetic either: the company’s fast-growing portfolio of projects includes contemporary designs at a high-end bakery, an industrial commercial building, and an outdoor pavilion.

For centuries, milling and planing have been used to cut wood into standardized sizes, but that process also reduces the material’s strength. WholeTrees, a company out of Madison, Wisconsin, skips those steps, keeping trees intact for use in engineered structural systems.

Published January 4, 2017

Pearson, C. (2017, January 4). Unmilled Timber Frames Go High Tech, Replacing Steel. Retrieved from https://www.buildinggreen.com/product-review/unmilled-timber-frames-go-high-tech-replacing-steel