TU Delft launches the online course Sustainable Building with Timber. This newly developed course is designed to give participants a holistic understanding of sustainable timber construction. This course enables all stakeholders in the built environment – architects, developers, engineers, consultants and policy makers, as well as students – to gain the knowledge and skills needed to harness the enormous potential of timber construction. They learn, among other things, that sustainable forest management is an essential condition for the use of wood in construction.
Sustainable forest management allows us to use wood while preserving forests without harming their ecological, social and economic functions. Sustainably produced wood contributes to carbon storage, both in forests and in buildings.
“The method of construction and materialization must change,” says Arjan van Timmeren, professor of Environmental Technology & Design at TU Delft. More than 35% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from the built environment, a third of which is specifically related to the production of building materials such as concrete, metal and plastics. In addition to climate change, there are other challenges facing the construction sector, such as scarcity of raw materials, health issues and the need to build sufficient housing. “One of the most promising solutions is building with wood and other biobased materials from sustainably managed sources.”
Wood construction innovations in architecture, technology and production
Thanks to innovations in architecture, technology and production, almost every building – including high-rise buildings – can be built in wood. Using case studies, the course covers typologies of wooden buildings for low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise buildings, as well as strategies for circular timber construction for renovating and upgrading existing buildings. Designing for (dis)assembly and identifying different wooden constructions, their components and adaptability are central. It also discusses facade typologies and their anatomy, indoor comfort and mechanical properties and the use of deciduous and coniferous wood.
Healthy construction and healthy buildings
Thanks to various developments in construction methods and production processes, enormous composite parts can be manufactured from solid wood, allowing large-scale use of wood in the built environment, even for high-rise buildings. Wood is also ideal for prefabrication, which means that most of the construction labor takes place in production halls and the construction process on site itself is cleaner, faster and of higher quality, with less inconvenience on the construction site, including for the environment. Circular construction practices allow timber structures to be reused at individual building and regional levels. Compared to traditional construction, this results in healthier buildings that store carbon instead of emitting it, while the raw material grows back in sustainably managed forests.
Home for the future
The Sustainable Building with Timber course was developed in the context of the 'HOME for the future project'. This ambitious project, initiated by FSC® Netherlands and FSC® Denmark, aims to increase the amount of wood from sustainably managed forests that is used in social housing. The project includes several activities: improving the position of wood as a building material in legislation, increasing knowledge about building with wood in the construction sector and producing life cycle assessments (LCAs) and product cards (EPDs) that are added to the National Environmental database. Tools are also being developed to better map the costs and climate benefits of building with wood. HOME for the future is part of the EU LIFE programme.
More information
- The first edition of this seven-week online course starts on October 18, 2023.
- For more information and to register, visit TU Delft online learning.
- This MOOC fits within the faculty's goal to drive the transition to bio-based construction, in order to reduce CO2 production throughout the entire construction chain. read here .
- The course 'Sustainable Building with Timber' was developed by the TU Delft Faculty of Architecture and the TU Delft Circular Built Environment Hub, in collaboration with VIA University College Denmark, FSC® Netherlands, Ssse OvO associates architects, Lister Buildings, AMS Institute, Material District, geWOONhout, TBI residential lab, Waechter + Waechter architects and TU Darmstadt.
- Read here more about the Home for the future project.
Source: sustainable-entrepreneurship.nl
