2nd Meeting: CA20139 HELEN - Holistic design of taller timber buildings
Our 2nd Meeting of the COST Action CA20139 — “Holistic design of taller timber buildings” (HELEN) took place on October 4-5, 2022, in Gotenberg, Sweden. COST Actions are intergovernmental programs that promote cooperation between research organizations from different European countries in science and technology. For further information, please check the Action Website: https://cahelen.eu/
We are organized into four interdisciplinary working groups to achieve our goals in the field of multi-story timber building design fields:
- Working group 1: Design for adaption, reuse, and repair
- Working group 2: Deformations and vibrations
- Working group 3: Accidental load situations
- Working group 4: Sustainability and durability
In the Work Group 4 of the Cost Action on Sustainability and Durability, we focused on questioning the sustainability of tall timber buildings. The complexity of tall timber construction concerning acoustics, fire safety, and wind resistance implicates the questioning of tall timber construction's environmental and social sustainability.
The 'trias material' concept was presented with a basic principle of reducing building material use or avoiding the use and encouraging renovation. Trias Materia is looking at 1) Avoiding demand for timber, and then 2) reducing the use of timber, followed by 3) applying biobased materials efficiently.
Also, an intensive discussion took place regarding the concept of 'carbon storage' and the biogenic carbon counting within life cycle analysis evaluations. According to Standard CEN 15804:2012+A2:2019, we can't account for timber's carbon or GHG emissions storage feature. Therefore, the timber construction community should focus on the low embodied carbon of timber, compared to steel and concrete, as the main strength of timber construction. Also, we had an overview of the life cycle assessment, environmental product declarations (EPD), and the new EU Construction Products Regulation requirements.
Finally, the group discussed the issue of timber sourcing through the work of Joris Van Acker on the use of soft and hard timber, with a special focus on spruce in the EU. Sustainable timber requires responsible harvesting from well-managed forests that are continuously replenished and ensure that there is no damage to the surrounding environment or native flora and fauna. In Europe, forest management certification schemes, including the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), assure that all wood and wood-based products originate from sustainable sources. However, there is growing evidence that European, Asian, and South American forest loss is driven primarily by clearance for agricultural reasons and by illegal logging. Without the documentation of the chain of custody certification of timber used in construction, that use of timber will be a broken path toward low impact built environment. Europe must increase its afforestation, reforestation, and sustainable management efforts without competing with agricultural land to meet the demand by consumers for wood-based products. However, it is essential first to stop the clearance for agricultural reasons, illegal logging, and the import of rainforest timber to ensure the sustainable management and use of timber as a renewable resource.
For further information, please visit the annex webpage: https://cahelen.eu/
Thanks to the Group 4 leader Steffen Franke and Iztok Šušteršič for the invitation and the Chalmers University hosting team, including Robert Jockwer and Wenchen Dong
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