The Sewanstrasse Primary School in Lichtenberg, Berlin, was built in just eight months. The secret? Modular timber construction

Berlin. The Senate Department for Urban Development takes a positive view. But the leap to mass production is still to come.
According to calculations by the Senate Department for Urban Development, Berlin will need to build 20,000 flats a year in the coming years. In addition, schools, daycare centres and sports halls must also be built in the new residential districts. In order to make Berlin's urban development sustainable and ecological, the Senate intends to increasingly use wood to replace climate-damaging concrete. While the project produced very few results in previous years, the wood strategy has recently shown clear successes.

In the years from 2021 to 2024, a total of 46 new schools and school extensions as well as sports halls were built in Berlin by the public sector, mostly in timber hybrid construction. In addition, there were nine daycare centres, two research and two administration buildings, as well as three new buildings for the volunteer fire brigade.

Timber hybrids conquer the housing market
The state-owned housing associations (LWU) are also increasingly building with wood: a total of 14 projects have been completed in timber hybrid construction. Most of the projects involved not just individual apartment blocks, but entire ensembles with more than a hundred flats each.

In the past three years alone, a total of 76 building complexes have been constructed using this renewable building material, according to the Senate Department for Urban Development's response to a question from Berlin Green Party MP Andreas Otto. For comparison: The timber construction atlas of the ‘Natural Building Lab’ of the Technical University (TU) Berlin listed exactly 51 projects in Berlin by 2021, which, depending on the type of construction, were built in the categories of timber module, timber frame, solid timber, timber façade or timber frame construction.

From a ridiculed eco-project to a real economic factor
‘When timber construction appeared in the red-red-green coalition agreement in 2016, many people laughed,’ recalls Andres Otto. In the meantime, however, building with wood has survived the trial period. ‘The renewable building material has arrived in Berlin and become a real economic factor,’ says Otto. And emphasises that since its beginnings in 2016, numerous cooperatives and private investors have realised a number of model projects alongside the public sector. ‘Now the timber house still has to go from being a model project to a mass product,‘ hopes the Greens’ construction policy spokesperson.

Timber construction is also becoming increasingly competitive with Conventional construction through the industrial prefabrication of elements and modules. Three large companies in the region - B&O, Nokera and Timpla - have already built up industrial capacities and could provide significant support for residential construction in Berlin. ‘Wood grows in abundance, especially in Brandenburg. To keep it that way, the forest must be ecologically reorganised,’ demands the Green politician.

Building with wood is a small but not insignificant step towards achieving Berlin's climate targets, emphasises Otto. Every cubic metre of wood contains almost a tonne of CO₂. Every wooden house is a CO₂ store, perhaps for centuries. In contrast, steel and cement blow plenty of greenhouse gas into the air during production.

Source: morgenpost.de