The Thoma Holz100 system, which was thermally optimised in collaboration with various experts, now makes it possible for the “WOODCUBE” to achieve the KfW-40 standard. As several studies show, the considerable advantages offered by ...
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... contradict “WOODCUBE’s” holistic approach, which is based on sustainable construction that is free of toxic substances. This once again demonstrates the need for the rigid rules of the energy conservation regulations (EnEV) to be revised.
... was no longer part of DeepGreen’s agenda after switching to solid wood construction, as glued insulating materials and airtight levels that prevented diffusion would have been necessary. Such requirements for the building’s shell directly ...
Energy Standard TSB Ingenieurgemeinschaft drew up an energy saving plan for the “WOODCUBE”, in compliance with the 2009 energy conservation regulations (EnEV). Passive House certification, which had originally been one of the “WOODCUBE’s” goals,
The knowledge gained through the building process is currently being further developed. The aim is that in future projects the staircase core will also be made of wood. It is also hoped that the floor and ceiling elements can be developed in order to achieve larger spans and lower construction costs.
This has resulted in a system component that brings sustainability, fire safety, and favourable energy properties together in synergy, while maintaining the strict single-material approach. This saves resources while ensuring a high level of efficiency.
This split up the partitioning required for fire spread into several sections.
The load-bearing wall components were optimized so as to comply with all of the requirements. New construction principles were established for the façades, and these also comply with fire safety requirements without detriment to the single-material nature of the construction: the façades were developed with ventilated cavities in small-scale sections.
This was the first time that an unencapsulated, solid timber construction has been implemented for a class 4 building. Experts advised on the heating system design, burn-up approach and risk assessment of fire loads and smoke build-up.
Approval had to be sought for various individual cases before the project could be implemented. Ultimately, the project made recourse to building regulations that have been in force for several years in Switzerland.
The use of solid wood construction is also a novelty in Hamburg: this type of development is not provided for in the city’s building regulations or those in force in other states (cf. the White Paper “Urbaner Holzbau” ‒ Urban timber construction).
The “WOODCUBE” enters new territory by incorporating an exterior wall structure that contains dowelled cross-laminated timber elements as airtight building components, without the need for additional measures such as airtight pathways or engineered wood board.
Timber Construction and Fire Safety
In the recent past, dowelled and mechanically joined solid wood elements such as those employed in the “WOODCUBE” were used only in environmentally friendly detached houses or various niche buildings. DeepGreen is therefore managing the “WOODCUBE” as a reference building that will remain partly accessible to interested planners and contractors after the end of the IBA Hamburg 2013.
DeepGreen Development has risen to the task of making the timber construction marketable by providing its own sales and information line. As a result, exclusive commercial partnerships have been agreed with various timber element manufacturers.
The different structural aspects are thus integrated with cost certainty and sound planning. Construction ecologists, architects, and structural engineers have worked together to devise a sustainable and healthy multistorey system building that is unparalleled on the market.
The experience gained as part of the implementation of the “WOODCUBE” prototype will be further developed and made marketable as a system building. This will involve new quality for timber construction, with a modular assembly system that brings various structural properties together at exemplary prices.
The “WOODCUBE” is the first carbon-neutral multistorey residential block in building class 4 to be constructed without toxic substances and to have the wood completely visible from the inside. As such, it constitutes a new timber construction system for urban settings that is resource-conserving, healthy, and long-lasting.
As a result of these changes, construction of the walls and floor and ceiling elements began only in November 2012. The high level of prefabrication of the timber construction elements meant that only three weeks were required for building the shell structure, so that the “WOODCUBE” was finished as early as May 2013, including all the interior work, after a total of only seven months of construction.
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