WOOD for HEALTH

Purpose and goal

Internationally, the interest in wood in healthcare buildings is growing among property owners and the construction industry. As for interiors, wood has the reputation to be easily contaminated and difficult to clean. The purpose Wood for Health is to develop antimicrobial surfaces for wood that meet current technical, environmental and economic requirements. The aim is to increase the possibility to use wood in healthcare buildings, as well as to map good practice and compile guidelines for the use of wood in hospitals and other facilities with high hygiene requirements.

Expected effects and result

The expected effect of the project is increased opportunities to use wood in healthcare buildings, through development of coatings that meet requirements concerning i.a. hygiene, mechanical and chemical resistance, photo-stability, flammability, and damp diffusion. Collaboration between academia, research institutes, the manufacturing industry and the construction sector means that the results can go from laboratory experiments to practical application. The project will deliver an international compilation of guidelines for the use of wood in healthcare architecture.

Planned approach and implementation

The project is based on a fictional redesign of Queen Silvia Children´s Hospital. Architectural drawings together with requirements for different types of spaces (WP2) form the basis for the development of high-performance antimicrobial and antiviral clear wood coatings (WP3), which are tested for antimicrobial, antiviral and hygienic properties (WP4), and evaluated from technical, environmental and economic aspects ( WP5). The project will produce a collection of guidelines for wood in healthcare architecture with European examples as a basis (WP6).