Montagskolloquium 2023
Opportunities and Challenges for Wood Construction
06 February 2023, 14:15–17:15
Hörsaal CHN C14, Universitätstrasse 16, ETH Zürich
The Monday Colloquium will focus on wood as a renewable resource, its provision and the possibilities for increasing the use of wood as a material in the construction industry. Climate change, but also the diverse and increasing expectations of various interest groups regarding the forest and its services such as recreation, protection, near-natural habitat for fauna and flora are increasingly calling into question sustainable timber production and the use of native timber. At the same time, from a climate policy point of view, greater use of wood in the building sector is being sought in order to substitute more energy-intensive materials such as concrete and steel and to store carbon in durable wooden buildings - this as a measure to mitigate climate change.
In the recently launched project "MainWood", a collaboration between ETH Zurich, WSL, Empa and EPFL, options for the use of wood in construction will be investigated, developed and tested as a contribution to a functioning circular economy and the Swiss bioeconomy. Over the next three years and beyond, the project will address forest dynamics and production, material use and flow scenarios, innovative building products, life cycle analysis and cost modelling. The aim is to identify the most important leverage points in the value chain to increase the use of wood in construction and to develop ecologically optimal scenarios for the use of wood in Switzerland. The colloquium serves as the launch event for "MainWood" and includes five presentations by experts from research and the timber industry, who will discuss the framework conditions of timber production and present innovative developments in the entire value chain from timber to construction, followed by a discussion on future opportunities and challenges of increasing the use of wood in construction.
Hardwaldturm, a wooden tower in Dietlikon municipality, Switzerland. (Foto by Andrea Frangi)
PROGRAM
14:15-14:25 - Introduction
Ingo Burgert (ETH Zürich)
14:20-14:55 Forstwirtschaft für Klima- und Biodiversitätsschutz - ist das möglich?
Jürgen Bauhus (Universität Freiburg)
14:55-15:45 Mehr Laubholz aus dem Forst - Auswirkungen für die Holzindustrie.
Alfred Teischinger (BOKU, Wien)
15:30-16:05 Scaling up wood-based construction – the Swedish experience.
Susanne Rudenstam (CEO, Swedish Wood Building Council)
16:30-17:05 The future potential of wood, including shifts in resource provision for the building industry.
Andrea Bernasconi (Haut École d’Ingénierie du Canton de Vaud, HEIG-VD)
17:05-17:45 Innovative Holzverwendung, lokale Wertschöpfungskette, Nachhaltigkeit aus Sicht eines Schweizer Unternehmens.
Enrico Uffer (Uffer AG)
