Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Build-in-Wood (SUSTAINABLE WOOD VALUE CHAINS FOR CONSTRUCTION OF LOW-CARBON MULTI-STOREY BUILDINGS FROM RENEWABLE RESOURCES)
Reporting period: 2021-03-01 to 2022-08-31
To meet the global and European challenges of reducing the GHG emissions from the construction sector, Build-in-Wood develops a sustainable and innovative wood value chain for the construction of multi-storey wood buildings. The potential estimated impact from Build-in-Wood is a reduction of GHG emissions of 12.1 MT/year by 2030. Based on experiences from the stakeholders involved in construction of some of the worlds largest wooden multi-storey buildings, Build-in-Wood takes wood construction beyond state of the art. The consortium has identified a strong need for improving the whole value chain and will make wood a competitive building material by delivering a fully documented, demonstrated, sustainable and cost effective building system. Build-in-Wood will address this challenge by innovative development of materials and components as well as structural systems and façade elements for multi-storey wood buildings fit for both new construction and retrofitting. Developments are delivered by means of a dynamic co-created web-based building configurator – the Design Guide – and a complimentary web-based toolbox of documented materials and components. Build-in-Wood demonstrates full-scale digital case projects for real projects and test system prototypes in operational environments. Active engagement of cities and their building ecosystems through technical and thematic co-creation workshops strengthens the urban-rural connections. All developed materials, components and system prototypes are tested, piloted and fully documented for immediate market uptake. Based on developments, recommendations for new or updated European harmonised technical specifications and Eurocodes are provided. To meet consumer acceptance, regulatory and sustainability requirements, Build-in-Wood includes life-cycle, socio-economic and safety assessments to guide policy and decision-making at industry and EU level.
In the first reporting period, Build-in-Wood has made great progress on a number of tracks. Within materials development, the project has investigated the possibility of using lower-quality wood as input for engineered wood products with encouraging results and has developed a biobased glue to be performance tested in the next part of the project. The Build-in-Wood structural building system has been defined and optimised along with the corresponding facade system. The system will now be prototyped and it's perfomance tested and validated. An analysis of European building regulations has been done to examine performance requirements of wood buildings across Europe. The analysis is publicly available. Several buildings has been selected for post ocupancy analysis to be carried out later in the project. Build-in-Wood has prepared a BIM database and a BIM library which eventually will include project developments as well as other wood based BIM objects. Sustainability assessment is an important part of the project and the groundwork for the final LCA analysis has been prepared. The project is also working on quantifying the sustainable carrying capacity of European forests and the full analysis will be finalised in the next reporting period. Build-in-Wood collaborates directly with a number of European cities to help the cities achieve their ambitions of increasing the use of wood in construction. A first round of workshops has been held in each city and more are planned for the next phase. The project has created a well visited website and the projects linked-in account with 5000+ followers (April 2021). Finally, Build-in-Wood is establishing an International Community for Wood Construction, which will be opened for stakeholders in the coming period.
Build-in-Wood changes the state-of-the-art materials mix of the construction sector from energy intensive non-renewable materials to carbon storing renewable wood-based materials causing a significant decrease of the GHG emissions of the construction sector. Within its first 18 months, the project has developed a building system which is flexible in terms of adaptability to meet different European requirements (climates, building codes, regulations) and user needs (office, residential, hotel, etc.). The system is designed for resource efficiency, cost effectiveness, prefabrication, and digital integration. This will contribute to increasing the productivity of the construction sector. The system is also designed with disassembly in mind for increased re-use and recycling options at the end-of-life. In addition, the Build-in-wood systems will result in a silent and dust-free working environment on site to the benefit of construction workers. Build-in-Wood works with cities and stakeholders incl. policy makers and end-users to increase the awareness of the great environmental benefits as well as excellent economic opportunities increased use of wood offers, not only the construction sector, but rural and urban societies in general. Build-in-Wood provides an incentive to sustainable forest management and promotes a sustainable wood value chain. The increased and sustainable use of wood and wood products will contribute to long-term climate mitigation and adaptation, e.g. through the encouraged use of a renewable resource, reduced GHG emissions (both sink and substitution effects) and improved resource- and energy efficiency. In addition, a strong forest-based sector, including a well-connected value chain, will contribute to rural development objectives by creating economic opportunities as well as green and decent jobs in both rural and urban areas.