UBM Development Czechia informs that it is now possible to build buildings with a structural system made of wood up to a fire height of 22.5 metres in the Czech Republic using the so-called engineering method. The use for timber buildings was confirmed on the basis of a joint expert opinion of the institutions concerned (Fire Brigade, ČAS and UCEEB ČVUT) published at the end of last year in the Bulletin of the Office for Technical Standardization, Metrology and State Testing. A systematic amendment of the relevant standards should take place in the first half of next year. Until recently, contemporary legislation in the Czech Republic prevented the development of ecological multi-storey wooden buildings.
In order to change the legislation in favour of the Czech sustainable construction industry and to speed up the whole process of modifying the standards in connection with the expert opinion published in the Bulletin, the individual parts of the second generation of Eurocodes 5 for the design of timber structures have already been issued in the form of Technical Standardisation Information and four international ISO standards focusing on the fire engineering approach have been introduced into the CSN system. The release of the draft revision of the standards is now scheduled for the first half of 2025 and has also been greatly facilitated by the activities of the Platform for Sustainable Wood Construction. The Platform was initiated last spring by the developer UBM Development Czechia together with Prodesi/Domesi, an architectural and construction company focused on timber buildings. Currently, the Platform’s members are companies that care about a greener future for the Czech construction industry (Skanska, Linkcity, Trigema, Edifice Group, YIT, JRD, Crestyl, Komerční banka and Česká spořitelna). The Platform is likely to grow with more members when it meets in March.
Josef Wiedermann, Managing Director of UBM Development Czechia, which is developing the Timber Prague residential project, the first multi-storey wooden buildings in the history of the capital, added: “This step marks a significant shift towards sustainable construction in the Czech Republic and brings us up to the level of developed countries in Western Europe, where construction has been going on for several years. On the part of the state administration and the authorized institutions in the Czech Republic, with which the Platform cooperates, work is still underway on individual tasks and solutions that should lead to a final change in legislation. Our parent company, UBM Development AG, is implementing a number of multi-storey timber building projects in Austria and Germany, ranging from residential projects to office buildings. It currently has over 250,000 m² of timber buildings in the pipeline. We are very pleased that the approval of legislation leading to the construction of taller buildings made of wood will enable us to build ecological wooden buildings on a larger scale in our country as well. Wood is an excellent absorber of carbon dioxide emissions and its use as a building material is much more environmentally friendly than concrete or steel. Houses made from solid CLT panels are built with a minimal carbon footprint. In the Timber Prague project, for example, we used 1,800 m3 of wood, which binds 1,800 tonnes of carbon. If we compare this project with a traditional building, the reduction in CO2 emissions is about 60%.”
