Wood is a great choice for schools

Creating the right environment is critical to attaining the objective of what a person wants to accomplish. If you’re striving for concentration, you wouldn’t go into a space with strobing lights, lots of traffic, loud music, animated conversations, and people roaming around surveying opinions. Wood has obvious benefits that make it a great material for houses of learning.

One concern is air quality (which is more common than you think). Poor air quality can trigger respiratory diseases and even impair a person's ability to perform tasks that require concentration, calculation, and memory. Wood can improve air quality by moderating humidity. As a biophillic material (essentially a sponge), it absorbs and releases moisture to balance the surrounding air. This increases the humidity when the air is dry and decreases it when it’s moist. Also, it’s hypoallergenic. The smooth surfaces can prevent the accumulation of particles and is easy to clean.

One of the main benefits of wood is a factor very difficult to measure. Research by the University of British Columbia and FPInnovations concluded that the visual presence of wood inside buildings helps reduce stress levels among occupants. Not only does it look good but it also helps you feel good.

You can also hear the difference. Wood sound attenuation and absorption properties allow it to be used for a variety of different programs, from gyms to libraries. Because it’s a porous material, it performs an acoustic function. Wood alone might be enough to keep that library quiet enough without additional sound engineering.

Finally, you can feel the difference. Other building materials conduct heat better than wood. In cold environments that means that concrete will absorb more heat to rise to the same temperature as wood. Additionally, in a cold environment - that cold will conduct the heat away from the warmer inside. The same is true in a hot environment. It will require more energy (and thus more carbon) to cool a concrete building than a wood one without an insulating barrier for the concrete. There’s a reason you don’t keep a metal spoon in boiling water for long.