Project duration: 06/2021 - 05/2024

The building method based on solid Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) is a fast-paced developing construction method with enormous potential for the future.

Cross laminated timber opens new fields of application and design possibilities for the ecological construction material timber. Due to its excellent machinability in the production process, the material is also an “enabling technology” for industrial construction with a high level of prefabrication using new possibilities of digitalization (keyword: “construction 4.0”). In order to assure a sustainable development of the solid timber construction, not only production and availability of cross laminated timber are significant but also know-how and experience in dealing correctly with this construction material during the design and planning process.

While in many areas (e. g. structural or fire proofing design) important basics for design and execution are available and well-known, building infrastructure technology in the context of solid timber construction has been a subject of little attention despite its relevance. The integration of water-bearing piping in the building infrastructure calls for an appropriate timber construction. Hidden leaks and leakages may cause massive damages to load-bearing wooden structures which are difficult to repair. Practical cases have already shown these problems. An increased incidence of such moisture damage may break down the trust in solid timber construction over the long-term creating a risk for the timber building industry.

Because this topic has been given relatively little attention so far, sophisticated, and user-friendly solutions are lacking. Therefore, the implementation of a suitably planned timber construction for all facilities is difficult and usually does not take place. This results in the need for creative and constructive solutions. A solid timber construction must have clear requirements to protect wooden bearing structures from moisture and simultaneously provide the possibility of pre-fabrication and system construction. Furthermore, design and planning tools must be developed to enable not only design partners but also executing companies to consider and implement efficiently such installation solutions in the design and planning process.

Both topics are addressed in this research project. One essential objective is to develop a foundation for the planning and implementation of a timber construction for the sanitary installations in common wet rooms. At the same time, above all, new solutions should be created. Another important objective is the development of digital planning tools to simplify the design and planning process. For this, methods of digital design and building such as Building Information Modeling (BIM), parametric modeling and automated design methods are used.

The last but not least important objective is the preparation and delivery of the acquired project results in an appropriate and usable form for the specific economical sector. In addition to the open dissemination of the results by means of workshops and publications within the framework of the project a configurator for wet-rooms will be developed and provided via the Internet.

Collective Research | General Programmes

The funding of cooperative research projects (sector projects) in Collective Research supports pre-competitive research projects which do not include any directly exploitable product and process or service developments.

Collective Research stands for cooperative research projects for whose results are made available to the industry and is open to all topics.