Plant Cell Wall’s ‘Glue’ May Be the Key to Wooden Skyscrapers

HAUT, a proposed 240-foot timber-framed tower to be built in Amsterdam. Image Courtesy of Team V Architectuur

Plant Cell Wall’s ‘Glue’ May Be the Key to Wooden Skyscrapers

Wooden Skyscrapers have always been the dream, but the question was ‘Can they hold?’ Now, the answer might be closer than ever, with the Durpees new discovery of a “Glue” that sticks the plant cell wall together. Father and son, Ray Dupree and Paul Dupree from the Universities of Warwick and Cambridge, solve the prevailing mystery of how main polymers in plant cells bind together forming a strong indigestible wall. Paul Dupree says: “We knew the answer must be elegant and simple. And in fact, it was.” So here is the matter in short.

(Read more via arch2o.com)