Large quantities of bark are produced in the timber industry. However, due to its uneven texture, the material is hardly used – and becomes a waste product. Couldn’t we make better use of tree bark’s potential in the future?
Together with researchers Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten and Dr. Michaela Eder, workshop participants speculated about possible uses for tree bark as a new material in architecture and design. They considered alternative applications for pine, cork, and paperbark trees and critically examined current assumptions about materials use that present obstacles to a sustainable future.
The prototypes and artifacts created in the workshop show that materials do not need to function perfectly or last forever – and that we might encounter the unique characteristics of pine bark in unexpected places in the future
