Wooden High Rise – Why build and why reside?

Welcome to a webinar arranged by the Forest Bioeconomy Network, aiming at promoting cross-sectoral exchange as well as interdisciplinary exchange on the topic of Wooden High Rise.

Storing carbon in long-lived wooden products and substituting fossil intensive products to wooden products is often viewed favorably upon. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to build wooden high rise. But how is the market for wooden high rise? What are the views of the possible residents? How large is the substitution effect?

The first part of the webinar will contain 10 minutes presentations by the speakers, each with additional 5 minutes for questions. The second part is a conversation where we in groups discuss the talks and where we go from here. The program will be posted here shortly.

Everyone is welcome to join.

Program December 10^th, 2024

13:00 – Hi and welcome

13:05 – Why build in wood? 

Anders Q Nyrud, Norwegian University of Life Sciences

13:20 – The aesthetics of the tall timber tower

James Brown, Umeå University

13:35 – Residents’ experience of living in newly built wooden apartment buildings

Jaakko Jussila, University of Helsinki

13:50 – Energy refill / Coffee break

14:05 – Nudges to choose wooden dwellings?

Francisco Aguilar, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

14:20 – How is the business ecosystem shaping around wooden multistorey building?

Anne Toppinen, University of Helsinki

14:35 – Climate change mitigation from a transition to timber buildings: The case of Swedish multi-family housing construction

Maximilian Schulte, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

14:50 – Breakout rooms – Where do we go from here?

15:15 – How did the breakout room fare?

15:25 – Thank you for participating – see you next time

15:30 – End

More about the speakers:

Anders Q Nyrud is a Professor at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). He was the Head of Department of Construction and Market, Norwegian Institute of Wood Technology, before joining NMBU.

James Brown is an Associate Professor of Architecture at Umeå University. He is the Leader of the Architecture and Wood research group at Umeå School of Architecture.

Jaakko Jussila is a Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Forest Sciences, University of Helsinki. His research topics include the impact of built environment to occupant wellbeing and the sustainability transformation in construction, with a special focus on wooden multi-storey construction.

Francisco Aguilar is a Professor of Forest Economics and University Fellow with Resources for the Future (Washington DC). Aguilar’s research focuses on the study of social-natural resources interactions particularly in regards to the conservation and management of forest resources. He leads the Team of Specialists on Forest Products and Wood Energy Statistics of the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Europe.

Anne Toppinen is a Professor of forest economics and business, Vice Dean of research at Faculty of Agriculture and forestry, University of Helsinki.

Maximilian Schulte is a PhD graduate at Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. He defended his thesis September 2024, which focused on forest-based climate change mitigation and improving climate impact assessments thereof.

About the photo: A multi-family housing on Mariehem in Umeå. During its construction in 2017 and 2018 it was, with its eight flores, the tallest wooden building in northern Sweden. It holds 142 apartments in three buildings. The houses are green building certified using 25% less energy than the requirement on new constructions.