Initial situation/motivation

The construction industry in Austria and worldwide is required to make significant contributions to climate protection, resource conservation, and the circular economy. While this sounds relatively simple in theory, practical implementation often involves a whole series of challenges.

The transition from linear economic activity in the construction industry to a circular economy requires a structural transformation of products, processes, and approaches along the entire value chain, with planning, craftsmanship/industry, assembly, and execution being particularly challenged to take essential components into account.

A widespread type of building construction in Austria is prefabricated wooden houses, which have a long tradition on the one hand and, on the other hand, a basic technology that is very well suited to the circular economy (rapid assembly of the finished building on the construction site using panel components prepared in the factory, manufactured industrially and in series).

Contents and objectives

The Re-Use: Wooden House project is concerned with critically examining components from the prefabricated house industry/wooden house industry with regard to their use as circular economy elements in the AEC domain.

The research consortium takes both an ex-post position regarding the use of components already in use in existing buildings and an a priori view of "design for deconstruction," or what a future-proof form of construction and design for wooden components could look like, so that the greatest possible degree of circularity can be ensured in the future.

Methodological approach

The project consortium, consisting of scientific and economic partners, is addressing technological challenges (e.g., component updates, deconstruction technologies, ...), economic (what cost savings can be achieved) and ecological (what CO2 equivalent savings can be achieved) aspects, as well as aspects of business model development and supply chains.

All of these approaches are necessary in order to develop the (supposedly) most suitable domain of modular construction into the prototypical flagship domain of the best possible integration of circular economy approaches in the construction industry.

If just one of these components fails, the whole thing may not work or may work poorly, so it is important to address data structures, performance issues, and challenges together along the value chain (i.e., planning, supply industry, assembly/woodcutters, and dismantling), which forms the backbone of the project.

Expected results

The objectives are proof-of-concept evidence to be translated into action guidelines, small-scale demonstrators, and the reformulation into concrete training and qualification modules that offer a tailor-made training program for circular economy in modular timber construction for employees of relevant companies and organizations.

Project management

Technische Universität Wien, Forschungsbereich Bauphysik und Bauökologie (in Zukunft: Bauphysik und regenerative Systeme), Institut für Architekturwissenschaften

Project or cooperation partners

• ATP-sustain GmbH
• BauKarussell e.Gen.
• ELK GmbH
• Holzforschung Austria – Österreichische Gesellschaft für Holzforschung
• J.u.A. Frischeis Gesellschaft m.b.H.
• Rubner Haus GmbH
• Saint-Gobain Austria GmbH
• Simlinger & Partner ZT GmbH
• VARIO-Bau Fertighaus Gesellschaft m.b.H.
• Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Research Institute for Supply Chain Management

Vienna University of Technology, Research Group for Building Physics and Building Ecology (in future: Building Physics and Renewable Systems)
Institute of Architectural Sciences
Senior Dipl.Ing. Dr.techn. Ulrich Pont
Karlsplatz 13
A-1040 Wien
Tel.: +43 (1) 58801 27033
E-mail: Ulrich.pont@tuwien.ac.at
Web: www.bpi.tuwien.ac.at