As well as having a pleasantly musty smell it has good insulation properties and is fire resistant, making it appropriate for internal and external cladding. The bark of the cork oak tree has come into favour in recent years as a material for both architecture and design projects. It is suitable for outdoor uses including cladding, shingles, decking and outdoor furniture, as well as for indoor furnishings and objects.Īrchitect K-Studio used chestnut wood for the lattice of a Greek holiday home, (above,) while designer Mikyia Kobayashi built an electric mobility scooter from the timber. The sweet chestnut tree produces timber with a brown or reddish-brown colour and a coarse texture. It is fine-grained and easy to work, making it a popular choice for furniture and homewares as gives a rich tone to interiors.Īzman Architects used cherry wood to create partitions in a London apartment while John Pawson paired the timber with limestone for his Jil Sander store in Tokyo (above.) The wood of the cherry tree has a warm reddish colour that darkens with age. Bates Masi Architects used oversized cedar shingles for the cladding of this home in the Hamptons (above and top) while HGA Architects and Engineers covered these Vermont dwellings in cedar boards. The wood comes from a handful of species of genuine cedar trees that grow at high altitudes including Lebanon cedar and Cyprus cedar.Īdditionally, there is a range of American conifers that are commonly described as cedars, including western red cedar and Atlantic white cedar, which are technically different species.Ĭedar-clad buildings are particularly common in America. It has a fragrant aroma and insect-repelling qualities. This coniferous softwood is weather-resistant, making it suitable for cladding including shingles as well as outdoor furniture. Beech wood ranges from creamy white to pink or red in colour.ĭesigner David Ericsson created the Madonna chair from solid beech for Swedish brand Gärsnäs while Peca designed cylindrical furniture with beech wood dowels (above.) It is also commonly used as a veneer and the timber is suitable for steam bending. Native to Europe, beech is a hard, heavy, fine-textured hardwood widely used in furniture making and as a flooring material. Bamboo is a type of grass rather than a tree but its fast-growing canes are widely used in architecture and design both in their natural state and processed into wood-like lumber and fibres.īamboo canes are used for the structure, walls and doors of this clothing factory in Colombia by Ruta 4 (above), while designer David Trubridge has reissued his Cloud lighting collection using bamboo strips instead of plastic.

Timber and stone house designs