Thinking the Future - Building the Future: End User & Building Industry Trainings in Lahr
Within the scope of the Interreg NWE Housing 4.0 Energy project, Thoma Holz100 hosted their regional end-user and building industry trainings this December 2022 in Lahr, Germany.
The end user sessions were held on the 1st of December 2022 with 28 confirmed participants. On the following day (2nd December 2022), training sessions targeting stakeholders of the building industry took place with 21 confirmed participants.
Both training sessions were launched with the keynote speech by Florian Thoma, which were about 1-1.5 hours in length and highlighted the following questions:
What is Housing 4.0 Energy (H4.0E)? Why is it important to create awareness for the goals of H4.0E? Which solutions were pursued by the project partners and what is the approach of the Holz100 prototype to achieve these goals?
How does Holz100 work and what is the basis for establishing a circular economy in construction? How long does CO2 have to be stored in building materials to function as a real CO2 sink? Which cascades of use of building materials are made possible by a planned deconstruction and how was this implemented in detail in the prototype?
What is the CO2 and cost balance of a house in construction compared to the operation of the building? What possibilities are there to use independent and locally available renewable energy sources for heating and cooling the buildings? Which concepts do we need to evaluate CO2 reduction and cost saving of building structures over the whole life cycle?
Following the keynote speech, Martin Schneider (Technical Project Development and Construction Management) introduced the digitalisation and planning of the project. Presented were the CAD systems and databases that form the basis for the component database and the planning process of projects. Mr. Schneider explained the planning process of projects, the interface transfers and the necessary information flows for the technical project development in solid wood construction based on the digital plans of the prototype. He also presented the background of the production process so that the participants could better understand it during the plant tour.
Finally, Matthias Hertweck (Project Communication) then led the group with great enthusiasm through the production and to the visit of the German H4.0E pilot prototype. Between sessions and following the training as a whole, there was adequate time and space to address the tailored questions and topics of the participants.
For the participating contractors, architects, professionals and institutional developers, the programme served as both inspiration and motivation to break new ground in the building industry. They were able to gain many incentives for previously unknown possibilities to make their projects more sustainable. For private builders, it was possible to draw a clearly recognisable line between research and development and approaches that are already marketable. The factory tour and the visit to the prototype were an important addition to the theoretical lectures for everyone. The perception of the wood and its processing with all the senses deepened the understanding of the material. Without question, the sessions will be remembered for a long time.
