Leading building sectors to success: the example of BTA with Swiss wooden construction
On March 20th, the Building Technologies Accelerator (BTA) of Climate-KIC organized a round table in Zurich to gather stakeholders of the wooden construction sector in Switzerland. The event was meant to conduct a reflexion on the future of buildings and the place wood construction could hold in this future. Katrin Hauser, Programme Manager at BTA tells us more.
Why did BTA hold this round table?
Katrin Hauser: In Switzerland, wood construction represents only 6%, unlike what you could expect. It is increasing and the industry thinks it could reach 12%. BTA has a mission to accelerate innovation in the building sector and the first step to achieve that is to bring together the actors of the chain value. In Switzerland we focused on wooden construction, in other countries we’ll work on other topics. It’s not so common for them to gather in the same place even though they’re all part of the same chain value.
Who are the stakeholders you brought around the table?
K.H.: We had 25 participants among the most significant actors of the sector in Switzerland. I’m talking about Real Estate Investors, architects, Minergie, municipalities, academics, developers, intergovernmental organizations, wooden construction companies. They were invited by BTA, Lignum, the Swiss Confederation and ETH Zürich to exchange on this opportunity to grow a strong wooden construction sector.
How did that “first step” to accelerating the sector go?
K.H.: It was fun and triggered a lot of interactions from all participants. The morning was dedicated to presentations from different stakeholders for everyone to get the big picture: financing, the state of the industry and its capacities, feedback from the field. The afternoon was an open discussion on the question: “What kind of persona are inclined to go for wooden construction?”. We drew a portrait of potential customers for these technics in Switzerland. Also, every participant gave their feedback on where are their difficulties and pains, where they succeed.
Where does BTA intervene from there?
K.H.: These discussions allowed us to identify some weaknesses where we can help. For example, wooden construction presents a great insecurity in cost estimations. We concluded this could be solved by developing a new tool based on a thorough database of wooden construction costs. 5 more ideas where suggested during this fruitful meeting, that could relieve investors and developers when they propose a wooden construction project. They actually were all positively surprised by these ideas. Just to give you an idea of what those ideas are:
- A decision cockpit for asset managers
- A prefabricated smart house
- A best practice database for project managers
- An evaluation system for investors
- A constant stakeholder dialogue on wooden construction
- A sustainability fund to fund first costs
What is the next step?
K.H.: Climate-KIC and Lignum are supporting the building of a project consortia to drive these project ideas. Also another event will be held in spring 2017 with the WBCSD with the focus on large scale investments into deep refurbishment projects.
You said you use that same format in other countries?
K.H.: Switzerland was the first country to test the round table format. We want to roll it out in other countries. We already have contacts in Finland for a round table about wooden construction too but elsewhere it won’t necessarily be on that same topic. Each country has its specificities. We plan on having a roundtable around other materials, on new forms of living, new financing solutions.