Launch of the book Wooden Buildings and expert lectures
At the beginning of the meeting Lukáš Vlček, Minister of Industry and Trade, together with the founders of Perspectives Research Ján Antal and Martin Stara, christened the new publication. In their opening speech, they stressed the importance of wood as a building material for a sustainable future.
“Wood as a building material is a key element in our journey towards sustainable construction. That is why it has always annoyed me when I see how much of the production from our forests ends up across the border, only to be imported back to the Czech Republic as finished products with added value. We are not making full use of the economic potential of one of the few natural resources we produce in our country. I believe that this will soon change thanks to our joint work,” said Lukáš Vlček, Minister of Industry and Trade, and continued, “We have taken important steps to ensure the fire safety of timber buildings and have confirmed the ability to design multi-storey timber buildings using a fire engineering approach, and we are preparing proposals to amend building standards. With these measures, we are removing technical barriers to the construction of multi-storey timber buildings and I am confident that we will see an increase in the number of these beautiful, comfortable and efficient buildings as a result.”
Ján Antal, co-founder of Perspectives Research, said during the launch: “The publication provides a comprehensive view of the issue of wooden buildings. Our goal is to make wood a common building material in the Czech Republic and to take it into account already at the stage of initial discussions with investors about multi-storey buildings. In this publication, we provide solutions within the existing legislative environment and show, with concrete examples from practice, where we can go in the field of timber buildings in the European context. I am glad that we have been intensively educating ourselves about timber buildings for the last year and a half and every newly completed project in the Czech Republic has proved us right in this decision.” Recent examples include the Dřevák residential project by Skanska (design by JCA), Timber Praha by UMB Development (design by Casua), or the BudexHUB multi-storey office building for client Gopay (design by Perspectives).
Subsequently, three expert lectures focused on multi-storey wooden buildings and their importance in modern architecture. Eva Neudertová from Česká spořitelna presented the advantages of wood as a renewable resource in the context of ESG, EU taxonomy and certification of sustainable buildings. Forester Aleš Erber gave an overview of the current state of the forestry complex in the Czech Republic and presented a vision of the forest of the future, which is crowned by multi-storey wooden buildings. Radek Oslizlo from NOVATOP presented the construction practice and stressed the importance of an individual approach to the design of timber buildings: “Architects and designers should select structural systems with the specific needs of each project in mind, thus achieving not only technical and economic efficiency, but also long-term sustainability and high aesthetic quality of buildings.”
Discussion panel: the future of timber buildings
At the end of the evening, a panel discussion brought together four leading timber building experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by this building material. Innovations in timber buildings were discussed, with a particular focus on multi-storey structures.
“Timber buildings offer an ideal solution for sustainable construction. Their low carbon footprint and the possibility of rapid prefabrication are key factors for investors who focus not only on green projects,” says Pavel Horák, managing director of the architectural studio prodesi/domesi, which has been implementing wooden buildings for more than 20 years. The advantage of wood in projects was also emphasized by Radek Ondruch, CEO and founder of Taros Nova with 25 years of experience in the construction, design and implementation of wooden buildings: “The combination of wood and concrete allows us to take advantage of both materials to create hybrid structures that are stable, flexible and suitable for modern architecture.”
“Wood has a growing potential in the Czech construction industry, also in public procurement thanks to the new raw material policy. Wood is an extraordinary material and thus plays an irreplaceable role not only in Czech architecture,” mentioned architect Matyáš Cigler from JCA, who is also the author of the book “Wood!”.
A number of projects often face investor concerns about fire safety. These criticisms were then deemed to be unfounded by Pe tr Kuklík from the CTU, who is a developer of standards for the design of wooden structures: “Fire safety is often cited as a barrier for timber buildings, but new wood-based materials and technical standards allow us to design their structures for fire resistance up to 120 minutes, which is crucial for buildings.”
The publication Timber Buildings is now also available online
Those interested in more information can view the online version of the publication directly here, or pick up a printed version for free at the Perspectives studio. At Rohanské nábřeží 717/4 in the Arkhe furniture showroom (open from 10:00 to 18:00 every weekday). The book offers a comprehensive view of the benefits of timber buildings, their design possibilities and potential for future architectural projects.
The partners of the publication are Perspektiv, Novatop and Taros Nova.
Media partners are the professional media earch.cz and ERA21.
