Welcome to “Walking Woods Edinburgh”, a self-guided audio tour around the centre of Edinburgh that takes a closer look at the history of the city through the eyes of a wood scientist. The tour was developed as part of the 20th annual meeting of the Northern European Network for Wood Science and Engineering (WSE), but it is meant to be interesting for wood scientists and laypeople alike.
Go to the route map and list of stops
Download transcript of the episode.
Phil has kindly provided me with some images of the (not so true) hammerbeam roof in the parliament hall:
Maybe with a look at the pictures Phil’s explanations are a bit clearer. But just to recap: Phil says that this is not a true hammerbeam roof, because it is missing the hammerbeam. This is where the hammerbeam would normally be:
Phil is being called to inspect buildings, as he said, either preemptively or if some damage is suspected. And Phil’s expertise in this is invaluable, as in-situ “grading” is not exactly a straightforward process. There is no European or UK standard for in-situ assessment, and the task is complicated. A bit more on the challenges of in-situ grading: Visual grading of existing structures.
Developing an in-situ grading standard could be part of a project that investigates the properties of “old” timber (read: recovered wood). We are hoping to get into new projects on the topic soon!
Some exciting ideas on how the method could work have already been examined by Mike Bather in his PhD thesis (supervised by Dan Ridley-Ellis). The method could also involve the use of different non-destructive and semi-destructive test methods to get a better idea about timber properties.
Next stop: Heave Awa Hoose