More than the sum of their parts - How UK Timber Houses can be Deconstructed and Reused

Cramer, Marlene; Sandin, Ylva

Abstract

The InFutUReWood project (infuturewood.info) focuses on the reuse of structural timber and is working on improving the design of buildings to facilitate deconstruction and reuse. For this purpose, we conducted five case studies in four of the partner countries, which analyse the design of contemporary houses and seek to improve them to facilitate deconstruction and reuse. The case study presented here focuses on a Scottish light timber frame house, which is partly manufactured offsite and is a typical example of UK timber-frame construction. We conclude that deconstruction and reuse of building elements from modern UK timber frame houses might already be feasible with conventional designs. Up to 95% of the timber structure can be recovered and reused, and small adaptations of the design would facilitate recovery and open more reuse possibilities. If companies had the intention to reuse houses when they are planning and building them, most obstacles that complicate deconstruction and reuse would fall into place effortlessly.

Citation

Cramer, M., & Sandin, Y. (2021, October). More than the sum of their parts - How UK Timber Houses can be Deconstructed and Reused. Presented at Annual Meeting of the Northern European Network for Wood Science and Engineering, Kaunas, Lithuania

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: Annual Meeting of the Northern European Network for Wood Science and Engineering
• Start Date: Oct 14, 2021
• End Date: Oct 15, 2021
• Acceptance Date: Jul 26, 2021
• Publication Date: Oct 14, 2021
• Deposit Date: Nov 23, 2021
• Pages: 108-110
• Book Title: Proceedings of the 17th meeting of the Northern European Network for Wood Science and Engineering (WSE 2021)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5755/e01.9786090217627
• Keywords: circular economy, timber frame, offsite construction, demolition
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2823825