报告题目：Natural Grown Stem Forms – Examples of Past Utilization in Austria
报告时间：2016年3月22日
报告地点：尼泊尔加德满都 尼泊尔学院
报告嘉宾：Michael Grabner，奥地利维也纳自然资源与生命科学大学（BOKU）

摘要：
In former times, there was a huge knowledge on the advantage and proper usage of “abnormal” growth patterns and the utilization of all parts of a tree. People of numerous crafts were ambitiously searching for curved and bended tree stems, branch-stem junctions of specific angles and root-stem junctions. 

The growth of trees is reacting to various parameters, like mechanical stress, changing the supply of sun light, etc. The shape of trees is mechanically optimized– often described within the scientific filed of bionics: learning from the nature to utilize with the lowest amount of material.

Handicrafts of former times were aware of these advantages using crooked or bended trees and using the junctions of stem with the branches or roots. The stiffness of branch-stem junctions for handles or other tools will never be reached by any other manmade wood junction. 

Due to the process of industrialization and the wish for standardization and fast processing, hardly any wood deviating from a more or less straight design is used any more. This means, that just a small amount of the mechanical potential is used nowadays. This might furthermore lead to a replacement of wood. It is important to realize that there is a specific application for every habitus, for every part of a tree and for every tree species. Being aware of this knowledge, the highest performance of wood for every application is possible.

During the analyses of various wooden goods dating between 1500 BC to modern times, these natural grown assortments were found often. This paper will present a kind of classification of possible utilizations and some examples. 

Stem-branch-junctions were often used as tool handles and to carry high loads using small sized parts. Stem-root-junctions were used for any kinds of skids and to set up boats and ships.

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