6th WOOD Conference – “Wood Promotes Climate Regulations”

The initiator, George Kuratle is happy to conclude the 6th Wood Conference, perfectly organized by Zaida Davids, with over 440 participants on 15 February 2016 considering this was the first event over the last 5 years with an entrance fee the response was a success.

After an initial 70 participants at the 1st Wood Conference 2010 the number of participants increased annually. 2015 was a highlight with 750 interested persons from the architecture, the investment, the public sector, politics, universities, design, wood construction and the students are listed.
 

The Wood Conference has established itself as one of the most important conferences in sustainable construction and green building concept in South Africa. Wood is a natural building material predestined to establish itself in sustainability.

The wood technology and extensive know-how in wood construction allows to realize multi-storey buildings in timber construction and / or hybrid construction. What is considered construction of the future in Europe, can become a reality in South Africa.

There are only winners: society, workers and employers, the forest, the ground water, the air, the economy, the climate, the region and the country. Not only financially strong people can create optimum structures with wood, has all the right solution. And the beauty of it: the wood grows for free.

The Wood Conference is a neutral platform for the exchange of knowledge and ideas, the international exchange of information and networking. Sustainability, ecologically valuable and energy-efficient construction, as well as new concepts and new designs in each conference in the foreground. To demonstrate the feasibility of this building, together with the entrepreneurs and key people from the research and standards bodies are involved.

This year launched the sixth Wood-Conference with a workshop, which were answered to questions from the audience of our market partners. This was followed by 8 lectures, including from Switzerland, the speakers Max Renggli (CEO Renggli AG) and Josef Hess (Vice Director of FOEN).

For the first time the Bern University of Applied Sciences was a partner of the conference, represented by Thomas Rohner, Professor for Timber Engineering and BIM.

The international exchange between universities in South Africa and Switzerland is guaranteed by the CDC (Center for Development and Cooperation) and the invited universities in South Africa UCT, SUN, UJ, CPUT, UKNZ, UP and NMMU. First candidates who are interested in an exchange semester, have been reported.

The Wood Student Foundation (WSF) founded in 2011 can support this year a Master's thesis and a kindergarten project.

Our conference-team is proud to have the sixth time a highly professional conference done by a lean organization. On this occasion we thank our market partners for their support, without such a conference would not be possible. A big thank to HWZ employees in Switzerland and SA who have contributed to the success of the conference.

Thomas Rohner chaired the interactive panel discussion/workshop with questions about fire resistance, sound insulation, acoustics, sustainability, price, life cycle and new products. The market partners involved in the panel answered questions from the participants on these topics.

Roger Kuratle opened the 6th Wood Conference who welcomed all guests, the speakers and the Swiss Consul General. R. Kuratle thanked the organizers (Zaida, George and Thomas) for planning and organizing the conference.

Bernadette Hunkeler Brown referred to the wood and forest policy in Switzerland and South Africa. She thanked Georg Kuratle for his vision and for the consistency of the implementation of the conference.

Josef Hess described vividly the Swiss forestry and forest policy of the past, the present and the future. J. Hess stressed the fundamental importance of this conference not only for the timber industry and the wood technology, but also for the forest and timber policies and measures for climate regulation.

Thomas Hugo; Melanie Blumentritt; Eliška Oberhofnerová presented the research project "Hout Bay House". This was constructed from NOVATOP CLT and a PAVATEX insulation. The wall structures are monitored by means of sensors for several years on temperature and humidity history. Therefore the high efficiency of timber construction can be detected.

Peter Brown presented the two standards for energy efficiency and energy consumption of buildings in a paper. In it were in the past 5000 building professionals, mostly architects of South Africa, formed on these two topics.

Peggy Sithole discussed in her article impressively the need for training of youth and women and the training of skills in areas of great poverty. They emphasized the importance and value of timber in the population and called on the timber industry to exposure to these topics.

Max Renggli demonstrated the modular and explained this as a key for the entry of wood in the modern urban design, regardless of the size of objects on the example of small units "modules R1 - R4" and the big buildings "free warehouse in Zurich". He ended his remarks with the phrase "The one who builds, bears responsibility - beyond today and beyond generations".

Trynos Gumbo spoke about the huge demand for housing and living spaces, which correspond to the social conditions in Africa. In the definition of housing and public buildings such as schools and municipal buildings he stressed the importance of renewable building material wood.

Schalk Kapp's key messages were that high energy prices in Africa can be reduced, in the mass of organic and sawmill byproducts energy is obtained. The objective is the reduction and the replacement of fossil fuels with energy from bio-mass. Mr. Kapp pointed to four major projects in Africa.

Christian Balanche and Jannick Jahnke present the modern freeform structures of France pavilions in Milano. They explained the digital model in its emergence from engineering, to press bed creation to machine control.

Jacques Cronje ended the conference with the presentation of "Wood Student Foundation -WSF" which promotes the use of wood in all training courses and student projects.

The 7th Conference Wood is carried out on 28 February 2017 Cape Town.