Reconnecting nature with urban Africa

摘要

As showcased at the Wood Conference 2019 in Cape Town, this well received brand is supplied countrywide through the Universal Plywoods' branches, which are located in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Bloemfontein, with ample stock levels at all times to service clients' needs. Since dealing with the exposure of the scorching sun and dramatic temperature changes throughout the continent, it's simply too much for most wood material to handle, not to mention the few ecological options. A little more than 30 years ago, Olavi Kaerkkaeinen, a passionate Finnish inventor and the founder of Lunawood, came up with a brilliant idea on how to develop a more ecological option for tropical hardwoods, using heat and steam. Studies on the possible benefits of thermal modification of wood began as early as the 1930s and 1940s in Europe and the US, but the manufacturing process never reached an industrial scale before the 1990s. Today, Lunawood produces over 150t/m~3 of Thermowood for various architectural projects around the world and for industry using the very same method, bringing exceptional Nordic nature to urban environments.