Me and My Wood!
About the advantages of the natural building material
Thomas Neyer
As a renewable building material, wood is sustainable and resource-friendly. But these are just two of the many advantages that speak for timber building. Wood is becoming ever-more popular – even among clients – and the use of timber in structural engineering is increasing.
Why is wood such an interesting building material for me? Wood can be used everywhere, in both classic multistory residential and office buildings and large-span loadbearing systems in industrial structures. Wood creates a feel-good atmosphere. People like to see wood, like looking at it, it smells good. Hence – and this is what’s really special for me as a structural engineer – we like putting it on show, which is why wood is often left visible. And wood grows again. Here in Europe. This sustainable design approach is fully in tune with the spirit of the age, as we can also see from the growing demand for timber buildings that we are already experiencing from clients. The range of available industrial timber materials, components, and connections is expanding continuously. Wood can meet a very wide range of requirements, also in the area of hygiene. As part of ATP’s standard integrated design process, the potential structural engineering use of wood is already discussed with all specialists during the initial project assessment.
I’m delighted to report that it’s increasingly common for clients to request the use of wood in a building at the very beginning of the design process.
This is demonstrated by two examples of which we at ATP are rightly proud: the processing area of the bacon producer Handl in Haiming, where we developed a timber roof structure in order to comply with the client’s wish to use wood as the central building material, and the wooden trusses and cross-laminated timber slabs of the spectacular production building of the company Ceratizit/Plansee Group in Kreckelmoos in Bavaria.
