Summary
• Timber-based construction accounts for 4% of French new housing starts.
• The sector is growing at 10% a year.
• The government incentivises builders to use more wood.
• The CNDB organisation is promoting timber building to architects with publications, seminars and training programmes.

In late September a group of French architects came to the UK to see some cutting edge timber-based building. The trip took in the latest in low energy, sustainable housing at the Thamesmead Ecopark, flagship public buildings such as the Savill Garden gridshell visitors’ centre in Windsor Great Park and the Offsite ‘Big Build Project’ at the BRE, which features several timber-based prototype prefabricated houses and a school.

The architects’ tour, organised by the timber industry body the Comité National pour le Développement du Bois (CNDB), highlighted burgeoning interest in timber construction in France. It’s not that the country does not have its own examples of state-of-the-art wood building. The Kyoto School in Poitou and the Auvergne Conseil Regional building, set for completion in 2009, will be among the most technically advanced structures of their kind. But there is clearly a conviction that French timber building has scope to develop and an appetite, particularly among architects and designers, to broaden their horizons and look at different wood-based construction methods.

The penetration of timber building in the overall French construction market is still relatively low, with latest statistics putting its share of the new build housing sector at 4%. According to housing start estimates from France’s INSEE National Statistics organisation, that puts the timber-based total at 15-20,000 units per year. “But according to latest industry estimates, the timber building sector’s turnover is now growing at 10% a year,” said CNDB operational director Michel Perrin.

The market, he added, is partly being driven by growing ‘green’ awareness among consumers and architects and the French government is also giving the sector momentum. “Building regulations on housing’s thermal performance are getting stricter and this is favouring prefabricated and particularly timber-based prefabricated building systems,” he said.

Climate change agenda

As part of its climate change agenda, the government is pushing the use of more sustainable materials in public buildings and in 2005 introduced Plan Bois-Construction-Environnement (PBCE), which states they should include a minimum volume of timber-based products. “Currently this is just 2dm³ per 1m³ of the materials total, but the policy has raised awareness about the value of using wood and we believe the government will increase the figure.”

The CNDB has launched other initiatives to boost French timber construction. One is a scheme enabling architects and builders to highlight the timber content of particular projects. This is based on the government’s PBCE initiative. Level 1 buildings under the scheme use 25% more than its minimum timber content, level two twice the amount and level three more than this. “And level three has now been adopted as the norm for their public buildings by regional authorities,” said Mr Perrin.

Other parts of the CNDB timber building programme include a monthly magazine, Sequence Bois, covering innovative projects in France and abroad, and a series of technical publications, Les Essentiels du Bois. “We are also keen to address the lack of training in wood construction in architectural schools,” said Mr Perrin. “We’ve created partnerships with colleges and have a programme to ‘train the trainers’. We’re also running seminars for architects and producing technical Case study documents.”

Prefabrication

The French timber building tradition is on-site construction undertaken by carpenters and joiners, but prefabrication is the growing trend. France also has a burgeoning engineered timber construction sector, using primarily glulam, but also LVL – as can be seen from the website of the industry association (the SNCCBLC), www.glulam.org. “Our glulam and other engineered wood industry may not be on the scale of those in the Nordic region and Germany, but it is growing.”

French engineered wood companies are building up a strong reputation in really large-scale structures, with Mathis, producer of Colorlam and Ecolam glulam, supplying the beams and erecting the structures for Basel airport hangars and the Renault Technocentre, while Caillaud has built a 38,000m² warehouse for the French post office and the 60m-span national rugby centre.

The CNDB believes timber construction in France can now only grow. Another flagship building, the new Pompidou Centre in Metz, due for completion next year and featuring an elaborate glulam lattice roof, is set to raise the profile of the sector further. The CNDB is also working to generate still more interest among architects and builders with its “osez construire en bois” (dare to build in wood) promotional and seminar programme.

Drawing more inspiration from across the Channel, it is also hoping to launch its own version of the UK Wood Awards next year.

For more information: www.bois-construction.org