Belgian architecture students design building elements and furniture with reclaimed timber

Ghent University introduces wood construction courses in its curriculum

Global wood demand will double between 2010 and 2030 , calling for sustainable timber strategies beyond virgin wood. To answer to this need, Nathan Van Den Bossche, Associate Professor in building science at the Ghent University Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, has introduced a student course on wood reuse. The course was set up in September 2024 as part of the European Horizon project ‘WoodStock’, which explores the climate-smart use of underutilised wood in construction. Through different tools and methods, WoodStock stimulates students to design, prototype, and test sustainable design practices and zero-waste concepts from locally available wood resources. In this new course at Ghent University, which is one of the WoodStock partners, 28 students have created four applications of reclaimed wood that will be used in housing units for homeless youth in 2025.  

Lore Delaet was one of the 28 master students in civil engineering and architecture who joined the course. Lore had already been intrigued by sustainable construction, the circular use of wood, and ways to include zero-waste concepts in building. She took elective courses on the topic, because the bachelor programme mainly focuses on concrete. 

The client for this student course was the non-profit organisation ‘Labland’. This organisation oversees the ‘Living Loop’ project, which provides temporary, circular and modular housing units for homeless youth who face challenges in entering the regular housing market. Living Loop is in line with the New European Bauhaus and its values of promoting “beautiful, sustainable, inclusive” solutions, which the WoodStock project also supports. So does Professor Van Den Bossche: “I want to engage students in these kind of projects with a tangible social and ecological impact.”

During the course, students have worked directly with the people of the Living Loop project to align the designs with the specific needs of the future residents. “In three phases, we have developed a chair, a cabinet, a façade and structural columns for the units”, Lore continues. In the first phase of the course, the Living Loop project partners gave introductory presentations. The students deepened their knowledge on wood reuse principles, in particular on cross-laminated timber (CLT), wood-based structures, joinery, façades and furniture. They then presented their research and inspiration for this housing project to their peers. In the next ‘idea generation’ phase, the students paired up to co-create prototypes. After three weeks, these were reviewed by Labland for practical feasibility. The designs that were selected by Labland for use in the housing units were finetuned over a period of six weeks during the last phase. In addition to designing, the students received an initiation in woodworking, and started developing the selected products with the available wood waste materials. They made detailed guidelines on how to produce the designs, and conducted strength tests on the columns to make sure that they would meet building standards. 

“We are now looking forward to seeing our hard work integrated into the units, once they are finished in the summer of 2025.” But not everything went without its challenges. Lore explains: “We looked for waste wood through social media calls, local stores and a city search, and made an inventory with parameters such as wood type, thickness, length, and width. This was more time-consuming than we first expected.”

Many students were inspired by the course and so was Lore: “I definitely want to do more research on wood reuse and building with wood. It is important to consider the environmental impact of materials in the building process.”