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Words on Wood
S3E1: Ash under threat with Sheridan Coakley, Wilkinson Rivera and Emma Hudgins
Season 3, Ep. 1
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Season three of Words on Wood kicks off with an exploration of tree diseases through the lens of ash, looking into the risks posed to this tree species across North America and Europe by the invasive emerald ash borer insect and the fungus responsible for ash dieback disease. How do these threats spread through forests and affect timber and, once they have struck, what happens to the dead and dying trees? We speak to Sheridan Coakley, founder of SCP Furniture, about the recent One Tree project, challenging designers to create a piece using a felled tree suffering with ash dieback, and Emma Hudgins - an expert on invasive species.
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2. S4E2: A Timber Curriculum with Judith Lösing, Hanif Kara and Kenn Busch
23:08||Season 4, Ep. 2Our next instalment of Words on Wood revisits education, this time examining whether there is a need for a more robust curriculum around timber and its properties within architecture courses. The guests all straddle the architectural and education spaces and bring some really good insights into areas that are working, and some not so well, within architectural education. Oli and Evi are joined by Judith Lösing, teacher at the AA and director of East Architecture, Kenn Busch , founder of Material Intelligence and Climate Positive Now and Hanif Kara, co-founder of AKT-II and professor at Harvard GSD.3. Making shorts: Chainsaw carving
14:44||Season 4, Ep. 3Building on the success of previous seasons’ ‘Tree Shorts’, this season introduces a new series of ‘Making Shorts’. These bite-sized episodes zoom into production techniques for timber, providing concise case studies through interviews with designers on the making processes behind specific projects. In this episode, we speak with Norwegian designer-maker Anna Maria Øfstedal Eng about creating furniture with a chainsaw and her experience working with American maple in a recent AHEC project.2. Making shorts: CNC milling
19:23||Season 4, Ep. 2Building on the success of previous seasons’ ‘Tree Shorts’, this season introduces a new series of ‘Making Shorts’. These bite-sized episodes zoom into production techniques for timber, providing concise case studies through interviews with designers on the making processes behind specific projects. Travelling to Australia, the first Making Short of the season focuses on CNC milling, tracing its connections to traditional hand carving methods. Designer Trent Jansen and Tanya Singer and Errol Evans, First Nations woodworkers and artists, explain how they employed high-tech milling machines to create a series of sculptural furniture that tell stories about the climate crisis.1. S4E1: The Value of Veneers with Cathy Danzer, Rio Kobayashi and Jorge Penadés
28:12||Season 4, Ep. 1Delving deep into the world of wood, featuring unexpected and timely topics from across forestry, architecture and design, the award-winning podcast Words on Wood has returned for a fourth season.A collaboration between the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) and Disegno, Words on Wood launched in 2021 as an upfront and wide-ranging end-to-end exploration of all things wood-related, from forestry and processing to design and disposal. Venturing into the world’s forests, sites of timber production, and design and architecture studios, the podcast examines how multiple industries intersect through a single material. Each episode is structured around interviews with leading architects, designers, educators, manufacturers, and forestry professionals who live among and care for trees on a day-to-day basis.The fourth season opens with an in-depth exploration of an often-overlooked and misunderstood timber product: veneer. Featuring contemporary designers Jorge Penadés and Rio Kobayashi, as well as Cathy Lynne Danzer of timber manufacturer Danzer, the first episode dives beneath the surface to explore the design potential of veneer and to examine how a new generation of experimental practitioners are pushing it in intriguing and playful new directions.5. Special episode: A Trillion Trees with Fred Pearce
44:30||Season 3, Ep. 5In the final episode of Words on Wood season 3, we are joined by multi award-winning science and environmental writer, Fred Pearce. Fred’s groundbreaking work covering the natural world spans at least 15 books. We sit down to discuss the topics behind his latest book, “A Trillion Trees”, which gives a fascinating insight to how the world’s forests can be restored without planting and following two key premises: ensuring that ownership of the forests is vested in the people who live in them, and to give nature room.4. S3E4: The Wooden Hospital with Ab Rogers and Eleanor Brough
28:36||Season 3, Ep. 4The series concludes by venturing into ‘The Wooden Hospital’. Starting with the work of architect Ab Rogers, who won the 2021 Wolfson Economic Prize 2021 for his radical approach towards reformulating hospital design, the episode looks at whether our existing healthcare spaces are fit for purpose. Could wood be the key to redesigns that create more humane and compassionate facilities? Featuring a group of designers and architects who are changing the way that healthcare operates, the episodes explores the role that timber can play in creating spaces that better support human health.Tree shorts: walnut
15:18|In this bitesize episode, we explore American walnut and all of its properties and uses. The episode features an interview with Mira Nakashima, daughter of George Nakashima and now the creative director of George Nakashima Woodworkers, and gives us a valuable insight in her years of experience working with the material.3. S3E3: Timber Education with John Makepeace and Helen Welch
30:23||Season 3, Ep. 3In this episode we look into the social aspects of wood and how timber education is approached across different levels: from amateur enthusiasts, through to academia and university education. This episode includes an interview with celebrated woodworker John Makepeace and Helen Welch, founder of The London Furniture School, and asks whether design education currently provides students with a sufficiently full, sophisticated picture of wood’s ecological entanglements, the variations between species, and the environmental impact of the material.Tree shorts: white oak
15:49|In this weeks tree short, we dive into the world of white oak - one of the most popular species across Europe. Host India Block speaks to architecture practice Maccreanor Lavington to find out more about the white oak used in the newly designed Ibstock place school refractory in South West London.