Brad Withrow-Robinson, OSU Forestry & Natural Resources Extension
Our final days of the tour included meetings with the local landowners’ cooperative in Telemark County and visits to two specialty sawmills.
The Tinnoset sawmill specializes in shaping large logs for traditional style log homes. Most are sold to builders, but they do some custom building on site too.
Getting a closer look at construction details.
The Svenneby family sawmill has been working with leading architects and looking for less traditional uses of wood, including many exotic (USA) species. We lucked into a presentation by nationally acclaimed architect Einar Jarmund who talked about the expanding role and popularity of wood in both commercial and residential buildings in Norway and showed a number of projects done by his firm ( http://www.jva.no/ ) using materials developed and delivered by the Svenneby mill.
We could not help but noticing how common and prominently wood was being used in Norway, and particularly as architectural and visual elements around Oslo. Why does wood seem less used, less celebrated here?
