Selecting Timber: Six Factor Categories

Anyone can list reasons 🪵

Ask a class why a designer chose oak and you get a good, long, useless list: it looks nice, it is strong, it is expensive, people like it. Every one of those is a real consideration. None of them scores what it could, because the specification does not think in a list. It thinks in **six named categories**, and a strong answer says which one a constraint belongs to before explaining it. "It looks nice" is an **aesthetic** factor. "People like it" is a **social** one. Those are different boxes, and knowing which is which is most of what this part of the course is testing.

The six categories, complete 🗂️

This is a closed set. There are six, no more, and every constraint you meet belongs to one of them:

Which category is each constraint?

Which are ENVIRONMENTAL factors? ✅

Select the TWO constraints that belong in the Environmental category.

• The timber will be upcycled from an old building rather than newly felled
• The boards must be properly seasoned before use
• Pale wood is currently fashionable in kitchens
• The species has to be specially ordered rather than kept in stock

Environment, as a REASON TO CHOOSE 🌱

Careful here, because this category is easy to answer badly. The full story of timber's ecological and social footprint - deforestation, habitat loss, transport, wastage, what logging does to communities - belongs to the properties and footprint module, and this is not it. **Here, environment is a reason to pick one board over another.** Four things do that work: **Sustainability** - is this timber from a managed source that is being replaced? **Seasoning** - dried timber is more stable in use, so it is chosen for work that must not move. **Upcycling** - reclaimed timber avoids new felling entirely, and often brings a character you cannot buy. **Genetic engineering** - trees bred or engineered to grow faster or straighter change what is available and how quickly. **So the exam-useful sentence is not "wood is natural, so it is good for the environment".** It is "this timber was chosen because it is reclaimed, which avoids new felling."

The pair everyone mixes up ⚖️

Half the constraints in a real design brief land in one of these two categories, and they are the two candidates most often confuse. The split is simpler than it looks.

Find the cultural or ethical constraint 🔍

An interactive activity.

One more, and it is the tricky one ❓

A brief says: "the species chosen must not be one that a significant group of the target market would find objectionable." Which category is that constraint?

• Cultural / ethical, because it is about avoiding offence and suiting the market
• Social, because it refers to a group of people
• Availability, because it rules out certain species
• Aesthetic, because the choice of species affects appearance

What does the treatment do to the cost? 🔢

An interactive activity.

Say it back 📝

How a material looks is an _____ factor, and whether it is sustainable or reclaimed is an _____ one. Whether the workshop can actually get hold of it is _____. The price of the board plus any treatment applied to it is _____. Fashion and popularity are _____ factors. And built-in obsolescence belongs under cultural and _____.

Plan a justified selection 🪜

An interactive activity.

At the drawing board 🧭

An interactive activity.

Your turn ✍️

An interactive activity.