Hur kommer framtidens byggande att se ut? Forskningsinstitutet RISE och IVL Svenska miljöinstitutet genomför tillsammans med industriparter ett projekt för att studera återanvändning av träbyggnader i en cirkulär ekonomi. Projektparterna har bland annat arbetat med två demonstratorer där trähus ska kunna ändras, flyttas och byggas på efter behov.

Fasadprojektet “Fasaden i staden Snabb, Snygg, Smart” är avslutat. Syftet med projektet var att öka marknaden för träfasader genom hållbara och flexibla fasadsystem med en estetik anpassad för stadsmiljö. Det nya fasadkonceptet i trä har utvecklats genom projektets omfattande studier och tester av material, design och teknik. Resultatet är ett system med färdiga fasadelement av furubrädor som är snabbt att montera och har en design som är lätt att variera.

I det nyligen avslutade projekt ”Fasaden i staden Snabb, Snygg, Smart” utvecklades ett adaptivt fasadsystem i trä som skulle ha en god arkitektonisk och teknisk kvalitet och vara anpassat för en fasad upp till åtta våningar. Här skriver Karin Sandberg, Camilla Schlyter och Anna Pousette, alla tre verksamma på RISE, om designprocessen och den arkitektoniska och konstruktiva utformningen tillsammans med träindustrin.

This report describes the design development to meet the project's established aesthetic and technical requirements of a façade system in wood within the project “The facade of the city Swift, Stylish, Smart”. The development of the design was performed in close collaboration with the project partners throughout the project. In this way, questions about the manufacturing process, assembly and maintenance have been continuously weighed in and provided inspiration and deepened knowledge for the design outcome. The goal of the project was to design a facade system of good architectural and technical quality made of heartwood of pine, well adapted to meet the requirements in an urban environment. We have set the limit for the facade system to a maximum of eight floors. Overall, the façade system must assure market competitiveness and provide a clear added value compared to competing façade materials in terms of design sketch ability and environmental aspects and thereby contribute to a bio-based economy. The result is a facade system designed for the high demands in the future building industry regarding recycling and environmental requirements on materials and components. It consists of façade cladding with mounting system, joints and connections to windows and corners made of sorted and defined raw wood material using a minimum of metal and glue assembled into a facade system. The system has been tested regarding fire according to SP Fire 105.

The Facade of the city Swift, Stylish, Smart. "The Facade of the city Swift, Stylish, Smart" is a project within BioInnovation's project "IPOS", funded by Vinnova, Formas, Swedish Energy Agency together with industry partners. The aim of the project was to develop a facade system of pine adapted for buildings up to eight stories in an urban environment, in terms of fire safety, adaptable aesthetic design and maintenance routines. This report is a compilation of results that form the basis for the participating companies continued work with the facade concept. Customer requirements, building regulations and the market for facade systems were initially investigated, analyzed, and compiled. An architectural design was developed with the purpose of making the facade attractive and easy for architects to use. Solutions for design and mounting of the façade formed a technical platform that combined design, materials, maintenance with economy. Wood properties and surface treatments were studied and verified in tests to achieve fire safety and long service life. Heartwood of pine was chosen because of its suitable material properties for facades. The facade system's functions were verified in lab tests and by small scale design prototypes. Full scale tests of the mounting of the facade system were carried out on two buildings in Luleå, whereafter mounting time and functions were evaluated. The pilot test showed that mounting was easy and quick once the builders got acquainted with the system. However, since the elements need to be adjusted to the wall it is important to prepare mounting well in advance. A full-scale fire test of the facade system was carried out with Teknos fire protection paint, which passed the SP Fire 105 test. Overall, the façade system was developed to be market-competitive and contribute to a sustainable bio-based economy. To assure this, durability and circularity have been considered both in the design and the choice of materials. “The Facade of the city Swift, Stylish, Smart" challenges the traditional way of purchase, designing, and assembling a wooden facade. Today, when longer maintenance routines and long service life of facades are in focus, it is important to highlight the strengths of pine heartwood in terms of moisture inertia and resistance to biological degradation. By manufacturing and commercialising a high-quality tested product, developed with an iterative research approach, this façade system has become competitive and can contribute to an increased demand for pine heartwood. The results can also open up new business opportunities for component manufacturers of wooden facade systems. The work has also been documented in a film available on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-lo_evWiUs

This guide is a review of the most recent European results from reports which shared experience and knowledge on how to introduce circularity in procurement documents. It also contains the authors’ own conclusions and proposes a business model and a list of possible requirements that could be introduced in procurements by municipalities.

It refers to the definition of circular building, to the principles behind it. It shows how to use the valuable experience of sustainability and how to pass from a sustainable procurement (Green public procurement) to circular procurement.

The guide is meant to be a reference, a supporting document for public decisions-makers when choosing criteria for procurement document of new constructions.

The use of timber structures in tall buildings increases the demand of moisture safety in facades. Moisture in the facade could result in unwanted consequences such as mold, decay and distortions in wood materials. This might have impact on the indoor climate and the building quality. The aim of this study was to evaluate the moisture safety regarding the composition of the façade and connection details such as windows and balconies. Scenarios with possible damages were evaluated with LCC (Life Cycle Cost) and LCA (Life Cycle Assessment). The scenarios were developed based on experiences from manufacturers and insurance companies and on research investigations of damages. LCC and LCA includes replacement of damaged building materials, transports of new materials and damaged materials for recycling or energy recovery and the use of energy for drying of moisture in the structure. Both light frame structures and CLT (Cross Laminated Timber) structures were included. Improvements of detail connections to increase moisture safety were also evaluated regarding risk of damage, costs and environmental impact. The results show that even small and inexpensive improvements will increase the moisture safety and significantly reduce the risk of damage.

There is a major need of cost-effective renovation that leads to lower energy consumption and better environment. This article shows the results from a pilot case of a newly developed prefabricated building system. It is an industrially prefabricated insulated wooden element adapted to renovation and upgrading of building envelopes. The renovated building is a one-story office building located in Skellefteå in the north of Sweden. Energy performance, thermal bridges, risk of moisture problems, LCA, applicability of the renovation method and assembly time were evaluated during the planning and execution of the renovation. Results from this case show that the elements were very light and easy for one person to handle at the building site. There is a great potential to reduce assembly time with improved joints and element sizes adapted to the building as well as improved batch packaging from the factory. With 100 mm insulation, the renovation gives a certain energy savings, and LCA calculations show that the reduction of climate impact due to reduced heating energy used during a service life 50 years corresponds to the climate impact of the renovation measures. The risk of microbial growth can be regarded as small.

The construction sector faces the challenge of mitigating climate change with urgency. Life cycle assessment (LCA), a widely used tool to assess the climate impacts of buildings, is seldom used for bridges. Material-specific phenomena such as concrete carbonation and biogenic carbon storage are usually unaccounted for when assessing the climate impacts from infrastructure. The purpose of this article is to explore the effects these phenomena could have on climate impact assessment of road bridges and comparisons between bridge designs. For this, a case study is used of two functionally equivalent design alternatives for a small road bridge in Sweden. Dynamic LCA is used to calculate the effects of biogenic carbon storage, while the Lagerblad method and literature values are used to estimate concrete carbonation. The results show that the climate impact of the bridge is influenced by both phenomena, and that the gap between the impacts from both designs increases if the phenomena are accounted for. The outcome is influenced by the time occurrence assumed for the forest carbon uptake and the end-of-life scenario for the concrete. An equilibrium or 50/50 approach for accounting for the forest carbon uptake is proposed as a middle value compromise to handle this issue. © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

There is a major need of cost-effective renovations that lead to lower energy consumption and better environment. The aim of a Nordic built project was to develop a concept for industrially prefabricated insulated elements for renovation and upgrading of building envelopes. The project with participants from Sweden, Finland and Norway focused on increased prefabrication based on wood for a sustainable solution. This report presents results from the project including a Swedish pilot case with the newly developed prefabricated building system. The prefabricated wood elements are produced by Termowood in Norway. Several studies have been done about renovation of facades, including attitudes and costs, and about important properties of the element system, for example energy savings, thermal bridges, moisture risks, environmental impacts, production and installation.

The renovated building in the pilot case is a one-storey office building located in Skellefteå in the north of Sweden. Energy performance, thermal bridges, risk of moisture problems, LCA, applicability of the renovation method and assembly time were evaluated during the planning and execution of the renovation. Results from this pilot case showed that the elements were very light and easy for one person to handle at the building site. There is a great potential to further reduce the assembly time on site with improved joints and element sizes adapted to the building as well as improved batch packaging from the factory. With 100 mm insulation, the renovation gives a certain energy saving. LCA calculations showed that the reduction of climate impact due to energy savings during a service life of 50 years corresponds to the climate impact of the renovation measures. With a thicker insulation, the reduction in climate impact during the use phase of the building would increase more than the climate impact of the renovation. There is also a potential to reduce climate impact from the wall element by selecting materials produced closer to the element factory and with a greater share of renewable energy.