Ulrich Dangel

Faced with man-made climate change and the need to provide housing for a growing world population, society needs to rethink the way future buildings are made. Wood is a truly renewable building material that is unlimited in supply if its growth and harvest are sustainably managed. Recent technological advancements in engineering allow the use of timber for the construction of multi-story structures, turning our buildings into carbon sinks rather than becoming sources for CO2-emissions.The book presents convincing arguments for the increased use of wood as an alternative to more fossil fuel intensive building materials, with the goal of demonstrating that an integrated approach can have the potential for positive impact on the environment, local economies, and the building culture at large.

Faced with man-made climate change and the need to provide housing for a growing world population, society needs to rethink the way future buildings are made. Wood is a truly renewable building material that is unlimited in supply if its growth and harvest are sustainably managed. Recent technological advancements in engineering allow the use of timber for the construction of multi-story structures, turning our buildings into carbon sinks rather than becoming sources for CO2-emissions.The book presents convincing arguments for the increased use of wood as an alternative to more fossil fuel intensive building materials, with the goal of demonstrating that an integrated approach can have the potential for positive impact on the environment, local economies, and the building culture at large.

The successful combination of a regional building style of sophisticated simplicity with sustainable construction methods has made the architecture of Vorarlberg (Austria) a model for the rest of the world. This book presents particularly successful projects from recent years involving various building types and portrays their development from design idea to built detail. The documented structures by Cukrowicz Nachbaur, Christian Lenz, Oskar Leo Kaufmann + Albert Rüf, Hermann Kaufmann, Dietrich Untertrifaller, Baumschlager Eberle, Marte.Marte, and Martin Rauch place the focus on their energy strategy and formally ambitious construction methods. All of the plans and detail drawings were specially prepared for the book, which makes it easy to compare the projects.