VISION

The evolution from Homo Sapiens to Homo Architectus was possible thanks to forests, thanks to trees and timber. We need now to bring architecture back to the origin. In forests architecture was born, to forests it must return. And it is time that Homo Architectus evolves into Homo Arboreus.

Thomas Allocca

Homo Arboreus

Whether Global Warming is due to a natural phenomenon or human pollution, we need to change the concept of "sustainable development" to "tree-centric development". If we want to reduce energy consumption and the consequent greenhouse effect due to carbon emissions, we need to plant as many trees as possible. We need to return to a wood-based global economy, much more than in Middle Ages, and re-elaborate the ancient building systems into modern solutions, bringing wooden architecture back to be the main road toward the evolution from Homo Sapiens to Homo Arboreus, a process distracted and interrupted by the Age of Concrete.

White Oak's Design Principles

(1) Wood-Based Building Systems, compared to any other building technology, can assure the highest technical and ecological performances, both in therms of seismic, wind and fire resistance, comfort and health, and in terms of energy costs, from production to use and maintenance, until final demolition.

(2) Massive Timber, compared to laminated timber, doesn't make any use of glue-based technology, which means our solutions can guarantee both the highest technical performance of the structural elements, and the lowest equivalent carbon footprint (equivalent tons of carbon dioxide). The same principles are applied in our projects through the solutions for thermal and acoustic insulation, using cork instead of polystirene or mineral fibers, and the same in our furniture, without any preservative or poly-vinyl-based painting, just using natural oils or wax.

(3) Low-Energy house for high-quality life is the conditio sine qua non of our projects, with lowest energy consumption, the lowest warm dispersion, but the highest comfort and the consequent highest market value. Our houses are designed without the need of vapour barriers, because they do not have thermal bridges, no consensation, no mold.

(4) Carbon Offset of our projects is a direct consequence of the application of the first three design principles, reducing to the minimum the carbon footprint of the whole building process and of the house. But we are also creating our own carbon credit production, through the project Timber Bamboo Collection, collecting and reproducing giant timber bamboo species, suitable for European climate, with the highest carbon sequestration rate.

White Oak for United Nations

White Oak Arkitecture has applied to join the United Nations Global Compact, to better promote and support the United Nations in building a more resilient and tree-centric world. Application ID 153964 | 2022 September 06.