Living Forest, Living Society

Purpose and goal:

The goal of the project is to develop a model for sustainable construction in wood in Sweden by starting from a system chain that connects forestry methods, the refining process and the designed building with the existing municipal urban planning process.

The project investigates how building in wooden can be the key to developing resilient forests and creating long-term sustainable designed habitats. In the project, the system chain "from forest to building" is mapped and developed and a new building typology is designed. The results will be compiled in a handbook.

Expected results and effects:

Policy´s and techniques are identified that make a local system chain possible and the process is communicated trough a handbook directed to municipalities. The results are summarized as guidelines for the development of municipal strategies relating to building in wooden and processing of wood. The handbook summarizes lessons learned and contains proposals for a new model for sustainable wood construction including guidelines for the three innovation areas "Sustainable material and resource flows", "Sustainable policy making" and "Sustainable designed living environment".

Approach and implementation:

There are four work packages relating to the system chain "from forest to building”: Process, Forest/Processing, Building and Communication. The work packages are divided into the phases; Analysis, Concept, Design and Communication. Each phase ends in a delivery.

During the project, four workshops take place where the entire project group meets and shares knowledge and materials and informs each other. Work meetings take place continuously within the work packages and when needed. This iterative process ensures that the different parts of the system chain influence each other.