WIA_ISSUE2_2023

NEWS
LEITZ PRESENTS SYMPOSIUM ON
TIMBER CONSTRUCTION
Christian Straubinger from Taglieber
Holzbau went in a similar direction.
For the engineer, the use of wood is
essential for environmental protection.
In contrast to the climate killer cement
material, wood is not a disposable
product.
Wood also actively contributes to the
thermal insulation and energy efficiency
of a building. This makes building
materials such as foams unnecessary.
According to Straubinger, the
enveloping surface of buildings plays
a decisive role in people’s wellbeing.
In wooden buildings, people have a
different sense of temperature and
a more emotional connection to the
building — in other words, a much more
“species-appropriate” life.
Entrepreneur Markus Derix introduced
circular timber construction. This is
a circular economy in which certain
The speakers that
touched on insights
into modern timber
construction
At this year’s Leitz Symposium in
Oberkochen municipality in Germany,
the focus was on topics relating to
modern timber construction.
Industry and science speakers
presented new trends and processing
methods to over 120 guests.
The symposium touched on topics like
strategic timber resource management
and circular timber construction and
roots.
Wood as a renewable construction
material is becoming increasingly
important and has developed into
an innovative and highly attractive
material. The manufacturer of wood
processing tools believes that it is now
important to use the opportunities of
modern timber construction and to
draw more attention to it.
A total of eight speakers presented
possible solutions, current projects,
development trends, machine
concepts as well as tools and
machining strategies at the Leitz
Symposium.
Prof Katja Frühwald-König from the
Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of
Applied Sciences was the first to
speak. For her, wood is the building
material of the future. But not the way
it is currently used.
However, the timber construction
industry must become more
material-efficient, as wood as a raw
material is not infinite. Due to climate
change, it is even necessary to reforest
the domestic forests. Research
on particularly climate-resistant
wood species has therefore gained
enormous importance.
building elements made of wood are
given a second life — meaning to say
they are not thrown away after use,
but are converted for further uses
within existing or new buildings, thus
making timber construction more
resource-friendly.
Prof Dr Jürgen Graf from the Technical
University of Kaiserslautern was the
next speaker, answering how the
construction and dismantling of these
building elements could be carried out
smoothly.
According to him, a simple connection
technology between the components
is elementary for a circularly effective
construction method. In the research
with his team, Prof Graf relied on a
reversible connection with so-called
cone adapters made of pressed
synthetic resin wood.
According to Leitz, the symposium
host also had a hand in this project.
Leitz developed a special cutter for
10 WOOD IN ARCHITECTURE • ISSUE 2 – 2023