Designs for a Cooler Planet
Aalto University’s biggest annual exhibition showcases interdisciplinary experiments at Marsio, Otakaari 2. Open 5 Sept – 28 Oct 2025.
Sustainable timber floor systems – concepts from circularity for circularity
The building construction sector makes a substantial contribution to CO2 emissions globally. In our projects, we aim to reduce the impact of building construction on climate change by offering solutions: first to enable design for disassembly of timber floor systems at the initial construction phase of the buildings, and then for the effective reuse of the timber materials that are recovered at the end of building’s life.
When
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Where
V1, Väre, 2nd floor
Otaniementie 14, 02150 Espoo
Exhibited projects
- Deconstructable connector for timber-concrete composite floors. A connection system that can be disassembled at the end of a building’s life. This makes it possible to easily recycle or reuse the structural materials and to avoid major waste management problems, which are all key factors in a circular economy.
- Dowel-laminated timber floor elements made with salvaged wooden materials. In this project, we aim to develop solutions by identifying which salvaged wooden materials can be reused effectively in producing new structural floor elements with mechanical properties competitive with current technologies. For this, we propose solutions to use salvaged wooden materials both as connectors and as lamella to produce dowel-laminated timber elements without gluing or significant processing. The case of reusing salvaged timber materials for structural applications will encourage the use of eco-friendly solutions in the built environment and contribute to circular economy goals, from which the timber construction sector and public can highly benefit.
Contact
Mohammad Derikvand
Gerhard Fink
Department of Civil Engineering
The Department of Civil Engineering aims to build the structures of tomorrow through research, education and collaboration.