2023-09-16 08:02:15
Economy house building
Everyone praises wood – but no one builds with it
Status: 16.09.2023 | Reading time: 3 minutes
A big exception to the rule: The “Roots” high-rise building in Hamburg’s Hafencity is largely made of wood
Quelle: picture alliance/dpa/Daniel Reinhardt
In the traffic light coalition and especially among environmentalists, wood is considered the material of the future when building houses. Other countries have been building with it for a long time. In Germany, however, the proportion is only increasing slowly. There is a very specific reason for this.
The project developer Garbe in Hamburg is currently proving that you can’t just build picturesque half-timbered houses out of wood: In the Hafencity, the Garbe managers and their builders recently celebrated the topping-out ceremony for the largest wooden high-rise in Germany: the “Roots” building is 65 meters high , is scheduled to be completed in 2024 and consists largely of the renewable raw material.
The project is demanding. Because it is located in a flood zone, the lower base is made of conventional reinforced concrete. Only higher up are walls and ceilings made of wood or a combination of several building materials.
The usual fire protection and sound insulation regulations also apply to wooden houses. Wooden elements often have to be clad and supported separately. The “Roots” will therefore not be cheap at 140 million euros for the planned 181 apartments.
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In the traffic light coalition and especially among environmentalists, wood is considered the material of the future when building houses. It has a better carbon footprint than concrete. And it is easier to dispose of if demolition cannot be prevented. “Wood is durable, it can be reused, it stores CO2, it grows on our doorstep and it is popular,” says Federal Construction Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD).
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In the construction industry, however, people don’t seem to be quite so convinced. The share of wooden buildings in all major projects in Germany is just 2.5 percent. This is shown by a current market study by the analysis company Bulwiengesa, which is available to WELT AM SONNTAG.
Other countries are further
By 2028, the proportion of wood will increase, but only to a meager 3.3 percent. Bulwiengesa surveyed developers, property owners and investors who have either completed or are planning construction projects with more than 1000 square meters of space.
The Federal Republic does not exactly serve as a role model – unlike the city of Amsterdam, for example, where a timber construction quota of 20 percent will apply from 2025.
Source: Infographic WELT
The federal cabinet decided on a timber construction initiative on June 21st. Building Minister Geywitz and Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) want to advance forest conversion and establish wood as a local building material.
“Wood can be used particularly well for serial and modular construction,” says Geywitz. “It helps to quickly create affordable, good housing, which we urgently need.”
A parliamentary conference on Monday will probably focus on why timber construction is nowhere near as advanced as it could be. For example, in some projects run by the state-owned housing companies in Berlin, wood was considered a material that could be used to make affordable rental apartments. But now projects are being canceled again. It is said that wooden apartments are up to 15 percent more expensive than those built using conventional methods.
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In general, wood is only used extensively where there is funding, as the Bulwiengesa study shows. This applies, for example, to Berlin, which has a particularly large number of projects with 2.24 million square meters.
According to a “Coalition for Timber Construction” made up of experts and companies, there are still many prejudices when it comes to load capacities, fire risk and service life. They now want to do educational work here.
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In order to display embedded content, your revocable consent to the transmission and processing of personal data is necessary, as the providers of the embedded content require this consent as third party providers [In diesem Zusammenhang können auch Nutzungsprofile (u.a. auf Basis von Cookie-IDs) gebildet und angereichert werden, auch außerhalb des EWR]. By setting the switch to “on”, you agree to this (revocable at any time). This also includes your consent to the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the USA, in accordance with Art. 49 (1) (a) GDPR. You can find more information about this. You can revoke your consent at any time using the switch and privacy at the bottom of the page.
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