Resource-Efficient Materialization - Sustainability Future Trends

Abstract

The growing enormous number of mid-rise timber buildings in European metropolitan areas leads to the investigation of a possible optimization potential in the use of timber in combination with other building materials. Within the framework of the Master's Course "Resource-efficient materialization" the Department of Structural Design and Timber Engineering at the Vienna University of Technology developed a multidisciplinary course including design concepts, feasibility studies and performance assessments of the timber components in order to improve the overall performance. Due to this process, the focus in the development of a Master's Course lies on the feasibility and optimization of the structures on overall component level on the one hand, as well as on the normative realization aspects of innovative timber-based composite structures on the other hand. The Master's Course "Resource-efficient materialization" has formulated the integration of the natural building material timber to the current requirements of the construction industry as a parent research objective. This paper shows the results of the studies and the conceptional design. The objective of the studies is to develop application-optimized timber systems with a special focus on the sustainability. A construction-optimized design with increased resource efficiency can be achieved.