TU&M - Timber Use and Maintain

Development and evaluation of circular timber frame elements

The project aims to develop circular timber frame elements considering their technical, environmental and economic feasibility.

On building level, the potentials of a circular design as a contribution to adaptive and flexible timber buildings will be analyzed. The technical development of the timber frame elements will be conducted on two levels: The elements will be designed to enable an easy disassembly and their re-use as well as to allow the separation of the (wood-based) materials at the end-of-life. On material level, the cascading potential of the materials and their potential (re-)use in the timber frame elements will be determined. The technical development is accompanied by studies on the environmental and economic performance of the elements as well as the development of digital documentation solutions.

The project aims are being pursued by an interdisciplinary consortium of the professorships on Wood Science, Timber Structures and Building Construction, Architecture and Timber Construction, Architectural Informatics, Circular Economy and two industry partners. The project is intended to make a contribution to the material-efficient and sustainable use of the domestic raw material wood in modern timber panel construction. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) coordinated by the Agency of Renewable Resources (FNR).

The results of the project, which is funded by the "Renewable Resources" program of the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), are aimed to decision-makers, planners, timber construction industry as well as the software industry, which depends on the requirements of the timber construction discipline for new developments.

Project Partners:
TUM, Chair of Wood Science, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Klaus Richter
TUM, Chair of Architecture and Timber Construction, Univ.-Prof. Stephan Birk
TUM, Chair of Timber Structures and Building Construction, Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stefan Winter
TUM, Chair of Architectural Informatics, Univ.-Prof. Prof. Dr.-Ing.
TUM, Professorship of Circular Economy, Prof. Dr. Magnus Fröhling

Industry partner Brüninghoff Holz GmbH & Co. KG
Industry partner Haas GmbH & Co. Beteiligungs KG

Funding Organization:
Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) under the project sponsorship of the Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe e. V. (FNR)

Project Duration:
January 2023 – December 2025

project website:
https://timberuse.ai.ed.tum.de/