The International Timber Construction Forum (IHF 2024) offers timber builders, planners, engineers, and architects the opportunity to share experiences, work, and goals related to timber structures and constructions. The forum will also provide project managers, officials from construction and approval authorities, timber builders, craftsmen, practitioners, and educators the chance to gather comprehensive information and exchange ideas.
Living space is an extremely scarce commodity in expanding urban areas. The sluggish construction industry, divergent interests and restrictive regulations are slowing down the urgently needed construction of new housing and the conversion of existing buildings. Rising land prices and rents as well as displacement effects are the logical consequence. How do European cities remain affordable for broad sections of the population? What is the market aiming at, where is relaxation needed, where is government guidance needed, and how quickly and to what extent can the well-known strengths of timber construction be scaled up to create the high-quality, affordable housing that is needed everywhere?
Organized by the Technical University Munich (GER) in collaboration with «aut. architektur und tirol», Innsbruck (AUT)
Timber construction is beginning to conquer the world of architecture. Increasing numbers of timber buildings are exploring the design and architectural potential of the material. In the architectural prologue, some of these projects will be presented in detail, and their stories told. It aims to inspire architects to engage in these developments and demonstrate to all how essential good design is, especially for a building material that is starting to dominate the built environment.
Organized by the European Society for Prefabricated Housing, Bad Honnef (GER)
Europe has voted for a new legislature. Where are we headed and what effects can the construction sector expect? This prologue is aimed at both building product manufacturers and builders. We start with an outlook at EU policy in the coming years and gradually examine its influence on building and company levels.
Organized by Timber Construction Europe, Berlin (GER)
Economic considerations and complex tasks when building in existing stock are causing the European renovation wave to stagnate. The climate protection goal of having a climate-neutral building stock by 2050 is faltering. In order to get the construction industry going, building law requirements are being questioned and reducing them is being discussed as a cost saving measure. The influence on the entire building over the entire usage phase is often overlooked. Challenges and solutions when building in existing stock must be viewed holistically. In view of this, wooden construction offers planners and executors many practical and cost-effective variants.
Organized by Aalto University, Helsinki (FIN)
Timber engineering has developed rapidly in recent decades. Wide-span halls and multi-story residential and office buildings made of wood are now widespread. High performance and reliable connections are the prerequisite for these developments. New and more demanding areas of application for wood as a building material require continuous further development in the area of connection technology as well as the integration of new knowledge into standardization.
Organised by the Technical Working Group ‘Education and Vocational Training’ of the European Wood Policy Platform (woodPoP)
Increasing interest in timber construction, new technologies and applications of wood and wood species pose new challenges for training and education in the wood construction sector. Interdisciplinary training and education programs as well as lifelong learning are becoming increasingly important. Platforms like the New European Bauhaus Academy offer exciting entry points for new forms of knowledge transfer.
WOOD ENVIRONMENT – Like other industries, the wood industry depends on the political and economic framework in which it operates. Therefore, it is important to consider the relevant national and international political trends and economic developments in the context of an international conference.
The overall economic situation is stagnating. There are material and delivery bottlenecks as well as a shortage of skilled workers. All of this has a negative impact on the construction industry. New projects are failing due to increased interest rates and expensive construction prices, and the number of building permits has collapsed. How is the global economy developing and what is the future of timber construction?
TIMBER STRUCTURES – High performance timber structures occupy a special place in the construction industry and the general public. They inspire confidence in the performance of wood as a building material and document the wide range of its use.
WOOD CONSTRUCTION DEVELOPMENT – The International Wood Construction Forum is a meeting place for innovative companies, product developers and researchers. In this block, the latest developments, solutions and research results are presented, to exchange ideas with companies and to initiate new research projects.
MASTER COLLOQUIUM – The Master of Science in Wood Technology from Bern University of Applied Sciences and Rosenheim Technical University of Applied Sciences has initiated an international call for papers for master students to present their theses with a topic related to the wood construction industry. Following students out of many qualified submissions were chosen to present their highly relevant findings at the third Master Colloquium in Innsbruck.
WORLD CAFÉ – Opportunity for networking and exchange between manufacturing companies, architects, planners and universities. Opportunities, challenges and relevant research questions for four subject areas are discussed in small groups. The thematic tables are moderated by experts from the universities involved in the Forum Holzbau, accompanied by the Bavarian Research Alliance. The World Café offers a starting point for topicspecific working groups and joint research projects.
GUEST TALKS | HONORS Moderation: Prof. Dr. h.c. Heinrich Köster, Rosenheim Technical University of Applied Sciences, Rosenheim (GER)
Graduate engineer and master carpenter Walter Bauer, born in 1953 in Satteldorf Baden-Württemberg, has been running the family business in the fourth generation since 1978. Since 1983, he has been involved in the German Timber Technology and Environment Committee. He has been deputy chairman of the committee since 2006 and is supported many technical developments in timber construction. In addition, he has been active for many years at the state level in Baden-Württemberg and in the technical committees of the German Prefabricated Timber Association. He also contributes his experience and expertise to standardization work. Walter Bauer has held the office of President of the Holzbau Deutschland Institute since 2008. For his efforts, he was awarded the Golden Badge of Honor from Holzbau Deutschland in 2016.
Professor Blaß, born in 1955, received his PhD in 1987 from the University of Karlsruhe. After working at the University of Karlsruhe, Forintek in Vancouver and TNO Building Research in Delft, he became a professor at the TU Delft. In 1995 he was appointed as chair of timber and building construction at the University of Karlsruhe, which, a position he held until his retirement in 2021. Through his research on connections, particularly in the context of the development of fully threaded self-tapping screws, he achieved international recognition and received the Marcus Wallenberg Prize in 2010. As a member or chairman of numerous working groups, he promoted timber construction standardization. It was particularly important to him to advance promising innovations in the industry towards becoming an approved product.
WOOD STRUCTURES – Wood structures are unique and different from other structures from an environ-mental point of view. As a natural and renewable resource, wood has qualities that are vital to our survival. If wood as a building material did not exist, we would have to invent it. Accordingly, all stakeholders in the construction industry are called up-on to ensure that wood plays a greater role as a construction material than in the recent past.
Exposed wooden structures have always offered an attraction and challenge for those planning and executing. In addition to bridges and towers, wood can be used in other areas of application, including buildings for mobility such as train stations and e-charging stations. But wooden bridges are also increasingly in demand again, even outside central Europe. Exposed structures are only truly sustainable if they are long-lasting. Well thought-out measures for structural wood protection continue to be the key to durability.
Two-axis span wooden structures have the advantage of redundancy, i.e. the ability to enable load transfer between the beams in the event of failure. In consequence, they have higher structural reserves than single-axis span structures. For such structures, the design strength may be increased with the system coefficient ksys = 1.2. In addition, the strengths of small cross-sections (h < 150 mm) can be in-creased using the kh coefficient. Examples from Belgium, China, Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland illustrate the costeffectiveness and aesthetics of such structural systems.
In the structural design of tall, multi-story wooden buildings, the skeleton construction is usually combined with the large-format panel elements for ceilings, walls and roofs. However, building with room modules has now achieved a high level of importance because it opens up the advancement of the timber construction-specific planning and manufacturing processes towards industrial manufacturing and production. Many believe this represents the future of construction. Building with spatial modules enables a significant reduction in construction time while increasing the quality of execution and reducing costs through scale effect in the individual process steps. Already in the design phase, the decision must be made as to whether a building should be constructed in element construction, in modular construction or, if necessary, a coherent combination should be implemented. The speakers in this block will address the general conditions and requirements for economical building with wood.
This block provides insights into the colorful world of wood research and beyond introducing the latest developments and contrarian positions.
The use of renewable and low-quality raw materials or residual materials is becoming increasingly important to develop sustainable and efficient building materials. Material combinations offer innovative solutions for modern timber construction, leveraging the individual materials' respective strengths to maximize structural integrity, insulation values, and climate impact. What new opportunities exist? To what extent can such combinations help to make timber construction more sustainable and future-proof?
How can we make optimal use of wood resources while improving sustainability in construction? Through innovative material combinations, technologies are developed that use non-millable wood and bark effectively and with high quality. This approach makes a significant contribution to increasing resource efficiency and opens up new opportunities for sustainable construction. By optimizing these previously unused materials, the potential of wood as a raw material is fully exploited.
In the competition between materials, image-promoting buildings for world exhibitions or Olympics play a special role. Only in the last few decades has it been possible to realize sustainable wooden buildings at this level (Japanese Pavilion Seville 1992, roof of the Hanover World Exhibition 2000, stadium roof of the Tokyo Olym-pics 2020). In the 21st century, the required climate neutrality is motivating more public builders to increase the use of wood, such as in the 2024 Olympic Village in Paris. In 1927, the International Building Exhibition took place at the Weissenhof in Stuttgart, a pioneer of concrete architecture. In the anniversary year of 2027, the city and region of Stuttgart will once again be organizing a construction exhibition, but with a focus on sustainability and timber construction. Japan goes even further at the Osaka 2025 World Expo. The 2 km long, multifunctional main building, 20,000 m3 of reusable glued laminated timber, is a pure wooden frame without diagonals based on the model of thousand-year-old temples.
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Program (PDF)