The UK has often been billed as a mould breaker in timber construction in recent years, pushing the boundaries in both building scale and design ambition. France already had some impressive modern wood buildings, but didn’t have quite the same reputation. That however is set to change as the country mobilises its huge timber resource behind 36 new state of the art ‘demonstrateur’ medium to high rise wood buildings.
The architect of this project is ADIVBois, the 70/30 public-private funded Development Association for Residential Timber Building. It emerged from a new government industrial strategy in 2013, which identified 34 business sectors as key for France’s future as a hi-tech, low carbon economy.
Each would get government support in training, research, benchmarking and investment incentivisation. Red tape would be cut and they would be assisted in forming mutually supportive supply chain clusters. The French timber industry was one of those sectors and subsequently ADIVBois, an alliance of the forestry sector, timber processors, manufacturers, research bodies, specifiers and construction companies, together with central and local government input, set up to capitalise.
The construction focus is multi-storey building, primarily for urban centres, with engineered wood as the core structural material. The goal is also to increase use of wood in interiors and joinery and this dual aim was reflected in the fact that ADIVBois was headed by Frank Mathis, chief executive of engineered wood and timber building giant Mathis, and Douglas Weber, boss of furniture producer Weber Industries.
The first buildings to come under the ADIVBois umbrella and to take advantage of its help in administrative areas, testing and networking with the wider wood building industry, were 12 projects already under way. These range from five to 18 storeys and were selected on their capacity to inform and inspire future ADIVBois projects and provide a ‘technical dossier’ for the wider industry. The organisation then identified 24 plots for further exemplar buildings, strategically situated across France.
“The sites are distributed so the initiative has maximum exposure, with at least one in every region,” said ADIVBois spokesperson Manuella Flamini-Loretti.
Next, in February, the organisation ran a competition for architects teamed with clients, to find the buildings. The criteria for entries were they should have a timber structure, be multi-storey and suited to the urban environment.
“The objective is also to underline all the advantages timber building presents, including speed of construction, low carbon and low pollution impacts and quality of living environment,” said Ms Flamini-Loretti. “The programme is aimed at responding to growing housing needs of urban centres, and the focus on high-rise aimed at showing the technical progress made in this area.”
The entries average 11 storeys, with the tallest topping 50m, so 16 or 17 floors. One of special interest is a seven storey building proposed to straddle the Paris Périphérique ring road with ‘few points of support’.
Entrants have to satisfy the competition’s technical specifications, with both glulam and cross-laminated timber envisaged as principal construction materials.
“Architectural and design perspectives are also important criteria,” said Ms Flamini- Loretti. “The concept is to develop ‘wooden buildings for living’.”
The winning designs will be announced at the WoodRise multi-storey timber building congress in Bordeaux from 12-15 September. ADIVBois will follow the development and construction of the winning projects and will facilitate meetings and exchange between project teams.
“Adivbois will also be a networking forum for its members, giving them the opportunity to work together to bring a new generation of buildings to life for the development of sustainable cities,” said Ms Flamini-Loretti. “It will provide expert support, a resource centre and will finance test work to validate innovative solutions of general interest and to inform building regulation, particularly in the fields of acoustic, fire and seismic performance.”
