natuREbuilt – ecological materials in multi-storey new buildings and refurbishments

Project goal

Although building with renewable building materials is becoming more and more important, there is a lack of information on the use of wood fibre materials, hemp, straw, loam, lime, sheep’s wool and similar materials. A lack of expert knowledge about construction details and possible combinations keeps builders and planners from making more use of ecological materials and components.

Breaking down barriers

The innovation network natuREbuilt wants to break down these barriers. The network consists of 17 project partners from research, planning and business. “The special thing is that we are creating a planning tool for ecological constructions in such a broad consortium of scientists and all practitioners involved in the building sector“, says Univ.-Prof. Azra Korjenic, head of the research area Ecological Building Technologies and at the same time project manager of natuREbuilt, describing the novel cooperation.

New detailed knowledge

For this project, the use of ecological materials in multi-storey new buildings and renovations will be tested in the coming months. The result of these investigations will be functional, tested (resilient) constructions, which will subsequently be digitised to be BIM-compatible. This new set of planning tools for ecological constructions can be widely used in the construction industry.

Building an innovation hub

natuREbuilt is also building up a regional innovation hub: This is intended to strengthen the focus on ecological construction in the “Vienna Region” (Lower Austria, Vienna, Burgenland). In addition to researchers from three different institutions, the network is enriched by building material manufacturers and traders, contractors, architects, experts and BIM experts.

Project duration: January 2021 until June 2023
Project partners: