“It is as if the message of the story of the three little pigs, in which the wolf demolishes the straw and wooden houses but not the brick ones, had penetrated very deeply”, jokes Daniel Ibáñez, director of the Institut d'Arquitectura Avançada de Catalunya. (IAAC) and one of the promoters of the Mass Madera network, which seeks to accelerate the use of industrialized solid wood in Spain.
Ibáñez estimates that less than 1% of the buildings built annually in the country are made with this material and he accompanies the data with an interesting reflection: "There are only two large structural cross-laminated timber (CLT) plants in Spain, which work very below its potential due to the lack of demand, while we have close to 30 cement companies”.
The advantages of wood as a building material are widely known. It is a natural and biodegradable material at the end of its useful life, which contributes to forest management and to mitigating the climate crisis due to the ability of trees to capture carbon dioxide (CO₂). While from the constructive point of view, it is a great thermal and acoustic insulator and is easily industrializable. "It is a super grateful and terribly simple construction if it is understood and applied correctly," said Ramon Bosch, from the Girona firm Bosch.capdeferro.arquitectura at a conference on the challenges and opportunities of wood construction recently organized by the company Egoin. , in Barcelona.
The lack of local wood, specific training and a commitment from the sector to this material were some of the challenges pointed out by the experts present at the Egoin event. "We have to understand that it is an industry, just like food, and that in the same way that we have mechanized the fields to be able to produce enough food, if we want to use wood to build more buildings we must mechanize its extraction," said Manuel Sánchez-Villanueva, from Haz Arquitectura studio.
In terms of training, the architect stated that "everything is missing, learning where the wood comes from, how it is exploited...", but he also sent a message of optimism by stating that "we have a very prepared sector in terms of architects and industry". For Elisabet Fàbrega, who attended the Egoin event as IAAC spokesperson, "it's a matter of relearning how to build with wood."
The challenges of building with this material were also one of the focuses of attention at the V Fusta Constructiva Congress, held in mid-November. Beyond the challenges already mentioned, the experts gathered at the congress urged "social culture" on the use of wood in construction, according to a statement from the Gremi Fusta i Moble. The use of this material "continues to be associated with deforestation, when in reality there is an excess of forest mass in the country, and false realities continue to be very present in the collective imagination, such as that it is a material that burns easily or that it is eaten by bugs”, indicates the director of the IAAC, who is participating in the Fòrum d'Habitatge i Rehabilitació de Barcelona 2022.
From his Urbanitree architecture office, Ibáñez has just begun construction work on a wooden building in Barcelona which, once completed, will house 40 official residences. With nine floors, the architect affirms that it will be the tallest wooden building in Catalonia once completed, which will not be for another 15 months.
