Timber builders, planners, architects, researchers, suppliers and investors spent three days discussing the major issues and the equally important detailed solutions of the timber construction sector. The numerous first-rate specialist lectures and keynote speeches provided plenty of material for discussion. Circular economy, construction industry, architecture, prefabricated construction, timber construction, politics and training, connection technology, load-bearing timber structures, timber construction development and timber buildings and structures were just some of the main topics of the diverse and extensive conference program.
On the morning of the first day, Martin Langen from B+L Marktdaten gave a cautiously optimistic outlook for the construction industry in the DACH region until 2026. “There is no fundamental problem with demand,” the economist stated, adding that there were already positive signals for the currently weak construction industry. He gave the stabilization of real estate prices, falling interest rates and the increase by a third in German loan demand in the third quarter as examples. While Langen acknowledged the timber construction sector’s ability to offer good technical solutions, he still sees room for improvement when it comes to creating awareness among potential investors. A lot still needs to be explained to investors – not all the information has been disclosed yet, and the challenge is to convince those who create demand.
The fact that there is still a lot of room for improvement for timber construction was also underlined by the figures on the share of timber construction in multi-story residential construction in Austria, which were presented by Dr. Jörg Koppelhuber from Koppelhuber² und Partner. Between 2008 and 2019, 390 timber construction projects with 8,400 housing units and a gross floor area of 807,000 m² were carried out in Austria. Thus, timber construction only had a share of 3% in this period. There is an upward trend, though.
Projects full of superlatives
A particularly big crowd came to listen to the lectures on the wider topic of “Load-bearing wooden structures – projects with charisma”, which boasted several superlatives. Roberto Modena from Rubner Holzbau presented the fish market in Sydney, which will soon hold the title of biggest wooden roof structure in the southern hemisphere. Its roof area spans 20,000 m², and it was built with glulam elements which are up to 32.8 m long. The Monheim sports hall, shown by Patrick Weber from Schlosser Holzbau was equally impressive: It has the largest roof structure of a sports hall in Europe.
Valéry Calvi, Bureau d'études Calvi and Gaëtan Genès, Etude Charpente et Structure Bois, went one step further and told the audience about the reconstruction of the roof structure of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which burned down in 2019. In a major effort, the cathedral was rebuilt in five years, using around 2,500 oak logs. The series of high-profile lectures was concluded with a presentation by North American star architect Michael Green of Michael Green Architecture.
Worthy award winners
Another highlight of the event was the honoring of two worthy personalities who have helped promote the use of wood in construction. This year, the entrepreneur, graduate engineer and master carpenter Walter Bauer was honored as a representative of the business world. Being a jack of all trades, Bauer has been running the family business Bauer Holzbau in the fourth generation since 1978 and has been offering his expertise and passion for timber construction to various committees, boards and institutes for decades.
In the field of research, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Hans Joachim Blaß was given recognition for his services. In 1995, Blaß accepted the call to the chair for Timber Structures and Building Construction at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, which he headed until his retirement in 2021.He gained international recognition for his research on connections, especially in the development of the full-threaded screw, and received the Marcus Wallenberg Prize for this in 2010.
