Could your house withstand a bullet?
According to Alex Lau, co-founder and executive chairman of InventWood, cladding it with a novel type of modified wood might make it possible.
The U.S.-based company has developed Superwood, a modified wood it claims possesses strength exceeding that of steel.
In laboratory tests, a gas gun propelled a bullet-like projectile at thin wood samples, including an early iteration of the company’s product.
While the projectile easily penetrated the natural wood, it failed to pierce the heavily modified version.
Mr. Lau suggests the product could find military applications, such as in battlefield shelters, while acknowledging they “haven’t tried dropping bombs on it.”
As the construction sector strives to decarbonize, materials like concrete – associated with substantial greenhouse gas emissions – are facing increasing scrutiny.
Proponents of wood-based construction argue that it can actively contribute to combating climate change by sequestering significant amounts of carbon over extended periods.
However, natural timber often lacks the necessary strength for certain applications and can degrade when exposed to moisture or wood-consuming insects.
This is where engineered wood products come into play. They promise enhanced strength and resilience – potentially reliable enough to form the structural frames of skyscrapers. The construction industry is increasingly exploring the limits of wood’s capabilities.
“You can almost massage the wood so you’re squeezing air and imperfections out,” Mr. Lau explains, describing the process of treating timber with chemicals to remove lignin, a polymer present in wood, and then compressing it under extreme pressure to reduce its volume by approximately 80%.
This process, according to Mr. Lau, fosters the creation of additional hydrogen bonds within the material, significantly enhancing its strength despite becoming much thinner than the original timber.
InventWood highlights a key advantage: the preservation of the wood’s appealing grain in the final product.
InventWood has dedicated years to refining its process, reducing the production time for a piece of Superwood from over a week to just hours.
Initially, the company will utilize wood from poplar trees, but Mr. Lau indicates that bamboo is also a viable option.
“We can grow suitable bamboo feedstock in like three or four years,” he says. “It’s really an efficient way to draw down carbon from the atmosphere.”
A variety of engineered and modified wood products are already available. Glulam, or glue-laminated timber, involves bonding layers of wood with aligned grains to create strong, moisture-resistant beams.
Cross-laminated timber (CLT) entails stacking wood layers with alternating grain directions to produce panels for walls and floors, resembling an ultra-tough plywood.
According to a study published in June, using CLT instead of concrete for a community center could reduce carbon emissions associated with the building’s construction and operation by nearly 10%.
Mr. Lau clarifies that Superwood is not intended to compete with these products. Instead, it could serve as a more aesthetically pleasing and structurally sound finishing layer or a durable external cladding.
Morwenna Spear, research fellow at Bangor University’s BioComposites Centre, deems it a “promising” technology.
However, she notes that in environments like the UK, wood used externally on buildings must withstand frequent wet-to-dry cycles. “I’d want to see some data coming from them about that,” she says.
Other companies are also developing diverse engineered wood products.
Pollmeier in Germany offers BauBuche – a laminated veneer lumber made from thin layers of beech wood pressed and glued together. This is notable because beech is not typically a primary choice for construction.
“By processing it into veneers, Pollmeier found a way to use it much more structurally,” explains Michael Ramage, director of the Centre for Natural Material Innovation at the University of Cambridge.
Australia’s 3RT utilizes thin veneer sheets of low-value trees or “pulp logs.”
This allows them to replicate the structure and density of more valuable hardwood. The product has recently been incorporated into large window frames, kitchen cabinets, furniture, and internal staircase treads.
Dr. Spear notes that the emergence of numerous wood products provides architects and designers with a wider array of options for incorporating wood into buildings.
“It may be that we think of these new products almost as pseudo-species,” she says. “It just increases that palette of options to people.”
Prof. Ramage points out that obstacles to wood’s adoption in construction persist: “Is the mortgage the same rate as a mortgage on a concrete building? Is the insurance the same price?”
He advocates for wider adoption of wood products primarily due to their capacity to store carbon for extended periods, while acknowledging that wood is not suitable for all applications. “We’re always going to need concrete in the ground for foundations,” he says.
Mr. Lau notes that following the devastating wildfires that struck Los Angeles in January, some have questioned the wisdom of using wood as a building material. However, he asserts that Superwood has demonstrated fire resistance in tests.
Mr. Lau adds that the wood has also withstood exposure to wood-eating insects. While it is more challenging to work with than natural timber, it can still be cut using traditional methods with carbide or diamond-tipped blades.
Dr. Spear emphasizes the importance of recycling old timber alongside the rise of highly engineered wood products. Researchers in the UK have demonstrated that waste wood from demolished buildings can be repurposed in CLT-style panels.
Moreover, you likely already have a significant number of recycled wood products in your own home, illustrating how novel wood utilization methods have become quite mainstream. “So much of our furniture is made… of particle board – a huge proportion of that comes from recycled timber,” says Dr. Spear.
Trump’s volatile trade policy has thrown the world economy into chaos, and put some US prices up.
It is the latest indication of the impact of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on big American firms.
The agreement comes just a day before a 1 August deadline for countries to strike deals with the US.
The Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp-owner is pumping billions of dollars into artificial intelligence projects.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia are partnering with the US to position themselves as AI hubs.