Timber-in-Town - current examples for residential buildings in CLT and tasks for the future

Solid timber construction (STC) with Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), which was presented for
the first time to an international audience of specialists in the context of the concluding
conference of the COST Action E5 “Timber frame building systems” in September 2000 [10],
can be definitely regarded as one of the most significant innovations in timber engineering within recent decades. Worldwide sales figures of about 500,000 m3 and a wide area of application, which includes not only modern one-family houses, multi-storey buildings, but also office- and administration buildings, hall systems and bridge structures, prove this statement. However, the motto “everything is possible”, which goes along with this rapid development, and the legitimate concentration on the feasibility in static-constructive terms (ULS, SLS, fire, earthquake, etc.) lead to the problem that interdisciplinary issues are considered insufficiently; this is in the context of multi-storey buildings with questions concerning qualitative building services adapted to this type of construction.
Therefore, the aim of this report can be seen in dealing with these interdisciplinary problems. In concrete terms this means facing them and offering possible solutions in the context of solid
timber construction out of Cross Laminated Timber. Due to the local processes on the subject of using Cross Laminated Timber, this report is based on a number of selected and partly completed projects in the Graz (AT) conurbation