Acronym: TIMBERHAUS
Project name: Climate-smart, circular, and sustainable solutions for use of wood in the construction sector
Funding Programs: Horizon Europe (EU), State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (CH)
Project Budget: €9 million
Duration: 48 months (November 2024 – October 2028)
Coordinator: Danish Technological Institute
Objective: To develop innovative wood construction products using underutilized wood species and post-consumer wood, aligned with the EU’s climate policy targets
Expected Impact: Reduce CO2 emissions, enhance resource efficiency, and promote sustainable urban development through innovative wood construction practices.
Acronym: TIMBERHAUS
Project name: Climate-smart, circular, and sustainable solutions for use of wood in the construction sector
Funding Programs: Horizon Europe (EU), State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (CH)
Project Budget: €9 million
Duration: 48 months (November 2024 – October 2028)
Coordinator: Danish Technological Institute
Objective: To develop innovative wood construction products using underutilized wood species and post-consumer wood, aligned with the EU’s climate policy targets
Expected Impact: Reduce CO2 emissions, enhance resource efficiency, and promote sustainable urban development through innovative wood construction practices.
Partners: Danish Technological Institute, Waugh Thistleton Architects, Urbasofia SRL, Climate-KIC Holding BV, Stichting Metabolic Institute, F. Junckers Industrier A/S, Demos Helsinki OY, Senatsverwaltung Fuer Stadtentwicklung, Bauen Und Wohnen (City of Berlin), Tegel Projekt GMBH, Stichting Built by Nature, Bauhaus der Erde GmbH, Municipiul Baia Mare, Maderas Gamiz S.A., Fondazione ICONS, Pfeifer Holding GMBH, Copenhagen University, Comune di Siena, Eidgenossische Materialprufungs- und Forschungsanstalt (Empa), Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule Zuerich (ETHZ).
The construction sector is responsible for 40% of global CO2 emissions, 50% of all extracted materials, and 35% of waste generated. Despite their recognised climate and carbon removal benefits, widespread adoption of wood materials in the construction sector remains slow. TIMBERHAUS seeks to accelerate the uptake of wood in construction by harnessing the potential of currently under-used hardwood species and post-consumer wood to create sustainable, high-performance construction products and designs, and enable more efficient use of forest resources.
TIMBERHAUS will support key EU initiatives such as the EU Forest Strategy and the New European Bauhaus (NEB), addressing the heavy over-dependence on only a few tree species, as well as a wood processing industry that is not adapted to work with diverse input of tree species and qualities
It seeks to accelerate the uptake of wood in construction by harnessing the potential of currently under-used hardwood species and post-consumer wood to create sustainable, high-performance construction products and designs, enable more efficient use of forest resources, and promote sustainable urban development through innovative wood construction practices.
Image source: Waugh Thistleton Architects
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
- To catalyse the green transition of the construction sector by making it more renewable and circular.
- To create a stronger link between the forest sector and the construction sector by supporting the New European Bauhaus initiative and matching the needs of the construction sector with the available biomass of the forests.
- To create new value chains for currently underused wood types and species to maximise the climate mitigation potential of the forest sector.
- To analyse and propose systems to overcome barriers for enlarging the wood construction sector in Europe.
URBASOFIA’s ROLE
URBASOFIA will collaborate closely with Climate-KIC, ETH Zürich, Demos Helsinki, and 3 European cities Berlin, Baia Mare and Siena to assess the systemic challenges and opportunities for climate-smart wood use in construction, embed the NEB values and principles through local innovative participatory approaches, formulate decarbonization strategies for buildings, and deliver actionable policy recommendations and roadmaps to expand wood construction across Europe.
URBASOFIA is coordinating 1 Work Package: WP5 – Challenges and opportunities for climate-smart use of wood in construction and is also involved as task coordinator in other 2 Work Packages (WP6 – NEB co-creation: embedding the NEB values and principles through multi-actor co-creation processes and WP7 – Maximising impact, scaling, and replication).