Exhibition  

POTENTIAL HARDWOOD
New Ways in Timber Construction

Curator
Udo Thönnissen

ETH MATERIALS HUB
ETH Zurich

17.11.2022 - 24.02.2023
Extended until 24.03.2023

Crooked growth, poor weather resistance and the difficult bonding properties of hardwood are the reasons why load-bearing components have been made mainly of softwood since the 19th century. Native hardwood species such as beech, oak, ash and chestnut, by contrast, are mainly used for furniture and interior furnishings. However, old buildings prove that hardwood can certainly be used in load-bearing constructions, because it has many advantages: due to its greater strength, more slender constructions can be realised, and the boundaries between the load-bearing construction and the interior finish can be rendered more fluid.
As the supply of hardwood resources in Central Europe is steadily increasing as a result of climate change and a reorientation of forest management, research and development work in this area has been expanded over the last few years and hardwood is becoming increasingly important in the construction sector.
The exhibition shows various innovative hardwood materials that are already available on the market, pioneering results from wood research as well as exemplary architectural projects in which hardwood is used instead of softwood.

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