40 340 Timber Matters: Slow Wood and Rapid Renewables (Autumn 2026)

Course responsible: Ute Groba

Wood construction is widely framed as climate-positive and regenerative. Yet mounting pressure on natural habitats and biodiversity complicates this claim. When balancing ecosystem preservation, embodied carbon, and material supply, timber must be understood as a limited and ecologically consequential resource.

The seminar develops material literacy and equips students with analytical tools to make informed, responsible decisions regarding construction systems and resource use. Students expand their construction and material vocabulary through the study of structural principles, insulation strategies, and building-physics performance. By comparing assemblies and systems, they learn to evaluate trade-offs between load-bearing capacity, thermal performance, durability, environmental impact, and architectural expression.

This semester, the seminar questions an uncritical reliance on mass-timber solutions, sometimes reduced to a “CLT automatism,” and explores regenerative materials with shorter growth cycles and lower ecological impact. The focus lies on how such materials can be meaningfully integrated into materially efficient wood construction systems.

The seminar is relevant not only for students interested in regenerative materials, but also for those seeking tools to assess wall build-ups in general with regard to their environmental impact and suitability for a Nordic context.

At the conclusion of the course, the student should be able to:

• discuss lifecycle methodology, biodiversity, resource use, and other sustainability criteria as competing drivers of material decisions
• analyse construction systems with timber and other renewable materials in relation to biodiversity, embodied carbon, and resource availability
• evaluate wall assemblies for Nordic climatic suitability, including thermal performance, moisture behaviour, and durability
• compare timber with fast-growing renewable materials in terms of structural role, insulation potential, environmental impact, and architectural qualities
• assess material properties and identify opportunities and limitations for their use in construction
• develop a materially informed modification of a studied precedent that improves technical, ecological, or architectural performance
• represent and justify construction systems and proposed transformations through drawings, models, diagrams, and critical reflection on ecological, technical, and architectural trade-offs

Teaching methods include lectures, readings, workshops, pin-ups, reviews, and one or two local visits.

Coursework includes data collection, analytical assignments, drawing, simplified calculations, model making, short reflective texts, and visual communication suitable for exhibition or publication.

The course culminates in a critical modification of a studied construction precedent. Students will rework an existing assembly with a focus of their choice, e.g. to improve its performance in relation to Nordic climate, regional material availability, embodied carbon, repairability, or architectural qualities.

Feedback is provided through group discussions, peer review, supervision, interim presentations, and guest critics. Some tasks are completed individually and others in groups.

Physical attendance at lectures, reviews, supervision sessions, discussions, and other educational activities is expected and necessary in order to achieve the learning outcomes

Assessment method: Portfolio

Grading scale: Pass/fail

In order to be assessed in this course, the student must have completed the following activities and assignments:

The portfolio consists of individual and group work from the semester assignments, as well as an individual reflection report.