Load-bearing glass in residential buildings made up of volume modules of wood

Purpose and goal

The project aims to develop technology and products that enable more natural light through load-bearing facades of apartment buildings built with modules where the main structure is made of timber. Through a series of workshops with participants from several branches, a principal design of a first load bearing glass/wood element that meet the requirements for structural purposes , moisture protection , insulation , acoustics , fire and additional features such as variable transparency or amplifiers for mobile signals was found.

Results and expected effects

The expected impact of the project is to increase the production of industrially built small homes through innovative ways to use the load bearing glass/wood elements for modular multi-storey buildings. The proposed glass wood element is expected to by its characteristics to contribute to new architectural expressions of smaller homes as well as more daylight but also new efficient floor plans offering more attractive housing.

Approach and implementation

The project was implemented through a series of three workshops aimed at studying different aspects of increasing the glass area. The workshops addressed the following areas ; architecture and day light, energy and materials issues and load bearing glass/wood structures. The workshops were announced wide and attracted people from outside the project constellation. By bringing together representatives with different skills new opportunities to develop the concept solution were given which not had been possible otherwise.