Wood it be possible: building sustainable and circular timber-framed houses in the Netherlands

To gain a better comprehension of the potential for circular and sustainable building, WEcR conducted a Flagship Building Materials pilot study on the construction of timber-framed houses using locally grown and produced wooden materials. Regrettably, this research concluded that the Dutch forestry, timber processing and construction industries are currently unable to satisfy the ambitious goals set out by the government. However, there does appear to be considerable scope to develop the supply chain for biobased (and particularly wooden) building materials. This would provide the necessary inputs for the planned extension of the housing stock - particularly if foreign timber is utilized and novel building techniques and materials used abroad are adopted in the Netherlands. This requires a major transformation of the entire supply chain for (wooden) building materials as well as a rethink in the way in which we plan and build houses in the Netherlands. Therefore, we aim to gain an overview of initiatives that are already using wood as a building material and identify the structural barriers preventing them from implementing their strategies in the Netherlands. Our goal is to investigate how the Netherlands can remove these barriers and move towards building with wood. Our objective is to identify the key barriers in the transformation towards timber-framed houses in the Netherlands and develop a pathway to overcome them. This pathway will assist policymakers in identifying possibilities for moving towards sustainable and circular timber-framed house building. Ultimately, our research aims to contribute to the development of a more sustainable and circular building industry in the Netherlands, with wood as a primary building material.