A few thoughts on the future of wooden housing

For thousands of years our ancestors have built their own homes using mostly wood. For some strange reason, however, in most places of the earth this trend has receded – nowadays we prefer to use the help of professionals to build our homes for us rather than do it ourselves. The art of self-build is still valued in many places, but that seems to be an exception, not mainstream.
So, have we simply become incapable of building our homes ourselves?

Granted, the building techniques and materials have changed a lot, but the history still shows that building ones home is not an impossible task. Moreover, I think we use too much metal and concrete building our homes, which makes building homes often too complicated. I agree that concrete and metal are materials that are both relatively cheap and easy to use, but it still leaves you wondering if the future of construction has already been “poured into the concrete”?

I have a colleague at gloghome.com, Mr Indrek Kuldkepp, who came up with the idea of wooden houses anyone could build. Essentially his company sells house plans, but with a difference – the plans are so detailed and simple to use, you do not need prior experience or education in construction. In a word: he sells professional building plans to non-professionals. In addition, since he has more than 14 years of experience with wooden houses in Asia, North America, and Europe, he is not exactly a novice.

He started moulding his idea a couple of years ago when he started wondering, if it was possible to restate the high position of wooden housing, that is namely self built. It is a nice thought I am sure, but can it be done? I suppose only time will tell, but for now, he seems to be doing extremely well.

I agree that the idea of me, for example, building a home for myself seems a bit far fetched, but not impossible – if I was presented with plans detailed enough for me to understand then why not? I’ve built stuff, when I was younger.
There are several Scandinavian countries that practice self build, only their houses often require prior contact and additional knowledge of construction so a guy like me would most probably fail. None the less – the practical and, in my opinion, down to earth approach to building ones home is anything but absurd. I’m sure, the motivation of a professional contractor could never be as high as the motivation of the house’s future residents.

In fact, the Scandinavian market is quite open to ideas to using wood as a sustainable building material. Of course, there are several different “schools”, each promoting their own way of construction as the best one, but that shows that even countries, who’s history goes back to the age of the Vikings, are still clinging on to the material once such a popular in construction. Moreover, it’s common sense, if you think about it. Wood is actually the most used material in construction, because it’s practical, sustainable, and natural – all aspects needed, to have a perfect, healthy home.

The author, George Zhordania, is a guest blogger from gloghome.com