The construction sector is responsible for 40% of CO2 emissions, 50% of all extracted materials, and 35% of waste generated. TIMBERHAUS will contribute significantly to decreasing these numbers and reaching Europe’s climate policy targets by developing innovative circular solutions for sustainable wood construction. TIMBERHAUS will use the considerable expertise and innovation power of the multi-actor consortium consisting of key stakeholders across the value chain to realise the full circular and sustainable potential of wood construction. Game changing wood processing technologies based on machine learning and artificial intelligence will be developed and used in the prototyping of innovative wood construction products incorporating currently underutilized wood resources and post-consumer wood. Supporting the New European Bauhaus, holistic and circular wood building blueprints for multi-story buildings incorporating local cultural traditions and design languages as well as human health and well-being aspects will be co-created and demonstrated as digital pilots together with European cities and their stakeholders. New knowledge on the quantitative limits and opportunities of wood as a resource will be generated to give valuable input to forest and climate policy development. To support the European Commission’s framework for carbon removal certification, TIMBERHAUS will develop a robust and cost-efficient methodology to quantify the carbon removal benefits of wood construction products and other materials. A European observatory for wood construction will be established to provide best practise guidelines and monitor statistics and market uptake. Localised and EU-level decarbonisation strategies for buildings will be developed along with roadmaps for mainstreaming multi-story wood buildings. Based on project learnings, policy recommendations will be provided along with recommendations for new or updated European harmonised technical specifications and Eurocodes.

To meet the global and European challenges of reducing the GHG emissions from the construction sector, Build-in-Wood will develop a sustainable and innovative wood value chain for the construction of multi-storey wood buildings. The potential estimated impact from Build-in-Wood is a reduction of GHG emissions of 12.1 MT/year by 2030. Build-in-Wood will, based on experiences from the stakeholders involved in construction of some of the worlds largest wooden multi-storey buildings, take building with wood beyond state of the art. The consortium has identified a strong need for improving the whole value chain and intent to make wood a competitive building material by delivering a fully documented, demonstrated, sustainable and cost effective building system. Build-in-Wood will address this challenge by innovative development of materials and components as well as structural systems and façade elements for multi-storey wood buildings fit for both new construction and retrofitting. Developments will be delivered by means of a dynamic co-created web-based building configurator – the Design Guide – and a complimentary web-based toolbox of documented materials and components. Build-in-Wood will demonstrate full-scale digital case projects for real projects and test system prototypes in operational environments. Active engagement of cities and their building ecosystems through technical and thematic co-creation workshops will strengthen the urban-rural connections. All developed materials, components and system prototypes will be tested, piloted and fully documented for immediate market uptake. Based on developments, recommendations for new or updated European harmonised technical specifications and Eurocodes will be provided. To meet consumer acceptance, regulatory and sustainability requirements, Build-in-Wood includes life-cycle, socio-economic and safety assessments that will guide policy and decision-making at industry and EU level.