COST Action HELEN

In COST Action CA20139 “Holistic design of taller timber buildings – HELEN” we are working towards optimized holistic approaches to improve the performance of taller timber buildings and to widen their competitiveness and use across the EU and rest of the world. With the worldwide construction sector being responsible for one third of carbon dioxide emissions, as well as forty percent of the world’s energy use and waste production, a shift to sustainable and renewable construction techniques is crucial. Engineered timber, champion of the sustainable construction materials, has evolved to a stage that enables the construction of not only family housing, but also taller buildings commonly built from concrete or steel. We are working on tackling the challenges related to the, design of taller buildings made from timber. The design of taller timber buildings should be performed with intensive collaboration among the design team members (e.g. architects, structural, fire, acoustic engineers etc.). We are addressing taller multi-storey timber buildings from a collaborative and interdisciplinary perspective, considering static, dynamic, fire, acoustic, human health and other aspects in parallel and not in isolation. Through interdisciplinary analysis and interaction, we want to develop holistic design guidelines that will enable safe construction of taller timber buildings, as well as respect human wellbeing demands. This Action aims to achieve that through intense interdisciplinary work and interaction between different design backgrounds, as well as between academic and design professionals.