Forests to buildings: A geography of log home manufacturing

The article presents a material-geographic study of contemporary log home manufacturing in the Eastern Woodlands of North America. The study investigated relationships between log conversion (i.e., processing) methods and regional location. Manufacturers were grouped by their conversion methods, using hierarchical cluster analysis; and analyzed for spatial correlation, using standard deviational ellipses (SDEs). Tree species utilization, log treatment, horizontal surface type, and corner notch type were found to be spatially differentiating. These attributes were tested for their ability to predict manufacturers’ culture region using multinomial logistic regression (MLR) models. Tree species utilization was an independent variable in all of the predictive models, suggesting a correspondence between building culture and ecological regions. This is consistent with earlier research. The findings suggest that location drives tree species utilization and, thereby, building methods. Like the eco-region itself, log conversion methods vary on a north-south gradient. It is argued that construction knowledge is geo-contextual and that the replacement of scientific wood extraction with ecosystem management as the central paradigm in forestry calls for geo-contextual approaches to sustainability in the construction industry.