2 HN users recommended this documentary2 months2019–2020score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN cites it in mass timber and construction threads as an example of insulation-free, glue-free all-wood building in Europe.
Builders Matt Risinger and Jordan Smith visit a Swiss cross-laminated timber factory that makes thick all-wood walls with no traditional insulation and wooden nails instead of glue or chemicals. The video is sponsored by Siga.
“where Matt Risinger is visiting a Swiss factory where they use wooden (berch?) nails and dowel pins in stead of glue.” (HN, 2020)
Good question. There is also CLT without glue. Check [this video] where Matt Risinger is visiting a Swiss factory where they use wooden (berch?) nails and dowel pins in stead of glue. And by using more layers they also need no insulation. Gives R=24...
Glue-free CLT with wooden nails and dowels, no insulation needed.
This Swiss company makes all-wood houses: meaning no insulation, they just make the solid wood walls thick enough to pass insulation codes without requiring foam or fiberglass. Also no metal fasteners. [this video]
Swiss all-wood houses with thick walls and no insulation.
[this video] That's literally what it is. You can do it in all sorts of interesting different ways, but the idea is, where with other techniques you'd use e.g. insulation, gypsum wallboard, oriented strand board sheathing or plywood, instead you just... put more wood on it.
Solid wood replaces insulation, wallboard and sheathing.
There is also CLT without glue, see my other comment. Check [this video] . "passive designs without active mechanical assistance" - do you mean passive (highly insulated, air tight) designs without mechanical ventilation?
> I live in Europe and I can't understand why houses in the US are built with wood and drywall. It surely must be cheaper to use bricks/concrete and then renovate it fully every 20 years, or am I wrong here? I would think that renovations are much easier to do, regardless of the time interval between them, with wood and drywall. Drywall can be torn apart with by someone with just their hands; wood may need some cutting, but once in shorter pieces, can often just be yanked. Even a large house can probably be gutted/internally-exposed in a day or two. With any kind of masonry you have to swing a sledge hammer with a lot of force or bring in jack hammers. Once set, concrete will resist a lot of force against it, which is why it's generally used for slabs and foundations. It also depends on what you mean by renovate: often changes are in internal layout, so if one uses good design techniques for the shell: * [link] And floor trusses to reduce/eliminate internal load-bearing walls: * [link] It give completely flexibility on what can be done inside the box. Wood is also fairly cheap and plentiful in North America. As for drywall: what are the alternatives for internal walls? Lath and plaster? * [link] Some growth in popularity for wood in Europe; some Swiss examples: * [link] * [this video]
Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.
Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed
6 Hacker News comments
From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.
Citations, criticism and jokes
Read more