Medieval Historical Models

Viking architecture was mainly a wood-based building technology, needing very effective solutions to resits to the extreme climate and geological conditions of the Northern lands. Polar winds and snow storms, rain, ice and fire, earthquakes, have been the natural forces against which Viking architecture needed to fight, and it won. Without any doubt Viking longhouses have been one of the most amazing pages of the world wooden architecture history. Light and quick to build-up and to dismantle, for quick moving or expansions, easy to repair, highly resistant to loads, but at the same time extremely flexible, warm without mechanical systems even at polar latitudes, the langhus is the main source of research and development for White Oak Arkitecture antiseismic and low-energy building systems.

Reinterpretation

Reinterpreting Viking models, we have developed our solutions. The seismic resistance of our houses makes possible that the more the structures are stressed under loads and external forces, the more the joints become closed and effective, creating a very synergic tight but flexible structural system. Structures dance with the earthquakes, they do not simply shake. The thermic resistance of our houses is based on differenciated transmittance, reducing the vapor in the air and do not allowing to it the condensation process. This means minimum need of cooling and dehumidifying systems. Our houses are comfortable all year round, whatever the latitude is. They are warm in winter and cool in summer, with the minimum need of mechanical systems and energy consumption. All these advantages, also mean houses with the lowest carbon footprint and the highest realty value.

Celtic Spirituality

When I was living in Ireland I was fashinated by the Celtic concept of beauty and spirituality as a synonym, and nature as the threshold between visible and invisible, the gate of the transcendence. Trees were the most sacred natural element of Celtic spirituality, and oaks the most sacred trees. Anything was made of wood, it was sacred, amuletic, it was belonging to the threshold. And this is the design philosophy of White Oak Arkitecture. When in 2017 I found the firm, it was clear to me that 'white oak' was the best name of the company, for keeping me connected to the threshold and to Ireland.

In 1980, the Irpinia's earthquake damaged my family house. It was one of the most terrific earthquakes in the history of Italy. Hundreds of thousands of houses collapsed like sand castles in a rainy day. Also the most modern concrete buildings were severely damaged, destroying their common mythical consideration as the future, as the eternal material. Our condominium needed two years of work before we could go back home, and it was just ten years old. I was so shocked by that experience that since my first studies of architecture I have been obsessed to become an expert of antiseismic systems. And today, after fourty years, the idea of concrete as the mighty solution is always more like a failure of architecture, just a needed passage but nothing more, always more archaeology if compared to wood-based building technology. I have spent long time in making researches, looking for historical archetypes, travelling as much as I could, learning timber framing systems and ancient carpentry, where the secret of their mighty resistance is the jointing. I have been living in Ireland, Iceland, United States, and when I found all the answers to my questions into medieval carpentry, I was in peace with myself. I knew that I could finally contribute through my work in making safer houses, for avoiding to other children my horrific experience. White Oak Arkitecture was born from fear and challenge. The fear that I lived. The challenge of helping the world of being scared by bad built houses, not by the earth's dance.