Superwood: The Reinvention of an Ancient Material

A Reinvention Rooted in Simplicity

For centuries, wood has been one of humanity’s most trusted materials from the first huts and ships to furniture and tools. But now, a small company in Maryland, InventWood, has given this humble material a remarkable upgrade. They call it “Superwood” a re engineered form of wood that’s ten times stronger than steel by weight yet six times lighter.

It sounds like something pulled from science fiction: a natural material that behaves like a high tech composite. But this isn’t theoretical. InventWood has begun producing it commercially, turning what was once a university experiment into a tangible building product.

The Scientist Behind the Vision

The mind behind this transformation is Liangbing Hu, a material scientist whose fascination with wood began over a decade ago at the University of Maryland. Back then, Hu wasn’t just curious about making wood stronger he wanted to completely rethink what wood could be.

At one point, he made it transparent by removing lignin, the substance that gives wood both color and rigidity. But his deeper obsession was cellulose the natural fiber that makes up most plant matter. Cellulose is everywhere, incredibly strong on a microscopic level, yet loosely organized in regular wood. Hu’s question was simple but radical: what if we could realign and compress cellulose fibers to unlock wood’s full strength?

From Ordinary Wood to Superwood

By 2017, Hu’s lab had done just that. They discovered a process that chemically treated wood to strengthen its cellulose structure, then hot pressed it under immense pressure to collapse it at the cellular level. The result was stunning wood that could outperform many metals in strength to weight ratio.

The process takes about a week. First, the wood is boiled in a chemical bath to remove weaker components. Then, it’s compressed so tightly that the microscopic pores collapse, creating a denser, tougher material. According to the study published in Nature, the final product’s strength rivals structural alloys yet it’s still, in essence, wood.

Years later, Hu and his team refined that process, filing more than 140 patents, and eventually, Superwood became a real product.

It’s Still Wood Just Smarter

When you see Superwood, it doesn’t look futuristic. It looks like… wood. That’s something Alex Lau, InventWood’s CEO, emphasizes. “From a chemical and practical standpoint, it’s wood,” he explains. The magic lies in the treatment, not the appearance.

That’s important because it means construction using Superwood would feel familiar. Buildings made with it could be up to four times lighter, putting less strain on foundations and performing better during earthquakes. And since it behaves like wood, architects wouldn’t need to rethink every design principle they’d simply have a stronger version of what they already use.

“It looks like wood, feels like wood,” Lau says, “but it’s stronger in pretty much every way we’ve tested.”

Competing With Steel

InventWood now produces Superwood in Frederick, Maryland. Lau admits that scaling up won’t be instant the process still takes hours per batch, though it used to take days. For now, the company is focusing on decking and exterior cladding, with plans to expand to interior uses like flooring, wall panels, and furniture next year.

Lau points out that ordinary furniture often fails at the joints, where metal fasteners take most of the stress. Superwood could eliminate those weak points entirely even replacing screws and nails.

Down the line, Lau envisions entire buildings constructed from Superwood, though that will require extensive safety testing. “In theory,” he notes, “we can use any wood species, even bamboo we’ve tested nineteen so far, and it worked every time.”

Tougher, Lighter, and More Sustainable

Superwood is up to twenty times stronger than natural wood and ten times more resistant to dents. Because the process collapses the porous structure, it’s also naturally resistant to fungi, termites, and fire something regular wood can’t boast.

Of course, this strength and resilience come at a cost. The production process currently makes Superwood more expensive than regular lumber, and it does leave a slightly larger carbon footprint per piece. However, Lau argues that when compared to steel, Superwood’s carbon emissions are 90% lower.

Their long term goal, he says, isn’t to make it cheaper than wood, but competitive with steel and far more sustainable.

The Timber Revolution

Superwood isn’t the first engineered wood product. For decades, builders have used plywood, cross laminated timber (CLT), and particleboard, which are essentially reassembled pieces of wood held together with adhesives. What makes Superwood different is that it’s modified at the molecular level the wood itself is transformed, not glued.

This innovation arrives at a time when timber construction is resurging worldwide. The city of Milwaukee already hosts the world’s tallest timber tower the 284 foot (87 meter) Ascent MKE and plans to build an even taller one, nearly 600 feet high. Wood, it seems, is making a modern comeback.

Why It Matters for the Planet

Concrete remains the most used construction material on Earth and also one of the dirtiest. Making it produces about 7% of global carbon emissions. Steel isn’t much better. So the possibility of a strong, renewable, carbon storing alternative like Superwood has massive implications for sustainable architecture.

As Philip Oldfield, an architecture professor at the University of New South Wales, explains, “Wood stores carbon through photosynthesis. When used in buildings, that carbon stays locked away for decades, even centuries.”

Oldfield sees potential here, but he’s cautious. The problem, he argues, isn’t just material strength it’s cultural inertia. “The construction industry is risk averse and slow to change,” he says. Stronger timber helps, but what’s really needed are better regulations, pilot projects, and education to build trust in these new materials.

The Future of Building

If history tells us anything, it’s that old materials can find new life when technology catches up. Superwood might not replace steel overnight and it probably won’t be cheap at first. But imagine entire cities built with lighter, renewable materials that store carbon instead of releasing it.

In that sense, Superwood isn’t just about making wood tougher. It’s about rethinking what “natural” means in modern construction. The idea that a tree, grown from sunlight and water, can one day replace steel beams isn’t just poetic it’s entirely possible.

And that’s what makes this material so fascinating. It sits at the intersection of nature and engineering, where innovation doesn’t destroy the natural world but rather learns from it and strengthens it.

Open Your Mind !!!

Source: CNN