Garmisch 2017

We came back from a few days in Garmisch and we are still excited by what we saw. The 23rd edition of the “International Wood Construction Conference (IHF 2017)” managed to surprise us yet again and will be remembered as a record year with over 1700 participants from all over the world. It is impossible to summarise in a few lines everything we saw and so we tried to collect some thoughts in a schematic way.

Let us know your thoughts, you can find the comments section at the end of the page: you don’t need to register, all you need is a social media account.

Always higher. Numerous special projects presented by speakers from around the world and one of these was the tallest timber building in the world (81m) under construction in Norway. Sometimes we wonder if it is really worth continuing the “struggle” against those who build such tall structures. What is your opinion?

Modularity and industrialisation. There has been a lot of talk about modular buildings to reduce cost and time. A very interesting point on this topic: the construction industry should take a leaf out the automotive industry’s book. We made this comparison a few years ago: we hit the nail on the head!

Hybrids! The trend started a couple of years ago with hybrid timber concrete structures especially for floors and bracing cores of tall buildings. Will this be the future of timber construction?

BIM + Lean. Finally, this year BIM was also a topic of discussion and how timber has been ready for years and waiting for others to catch up. Congratulation to Dr. Gerd Prause who highlighted that the main obstacle to the spread of new tools is the resistance to change by investors and designers. To our question about what should be done in future he replied that universities are already preparing new players by providing them with high level training.

Social. The social aspect in Garmisch is always the most important due to the possibility to meet and exchange ideas with dozens of operators.

Italy. Italy, if not represented “en masses” by Rothoblaas who in addition to being premium partners also presented its “spider” solution for multi-story buildings, Rubner Holzbau sud presented the Naples Metro project and architect Peter Pichler with the futuristic project of the Oberholz refuge in Obereggen (BZ).

Michael Green. A very special guest on Thursday evening. The Canadian Archistar Michael Green talked about his passion for wood and how this material can help us with construction of the future.

Save the date. The next round will be in Italy with the 7^th International Forum for Wood Housing to be held in Lazise on Wednesday, March 14, 2018. Do not miss it!