Brettstapel

The timber itself locks in vast amounts of carbon dioxide without emitting harmful toxins found in other materials, benefiting both the user and the environment.

Originally it consisted of low grade timber posts continuously nailed together to form panels strong enough to support mines and railways.

[3] Throughout the development of Brettstapel, low grade wood (predominantly spruce or fir) has remained the choice raw material for the posts where-as beech is more often used for the dowels.

By ensuring natural defects, such as knots in the wooden posts are not adjacent to each other, poor quality timber can be utilised which makes for a highly economical way of using a fast-growing, underused resource, of which the UK and Scotland in particular, has an abundance.

The prefabrication takes place in dedicated factories using specialist machinery and an experienced team ensuring tight quality control and fast construction.

Structural openings are incorporated into the panels, and in some cases plumbing and electrical fittings can be too, whilst the external finish commonly varies between render and timber cladding which is applied on-site.

Whereas the timber skeleton of the E3 building is obscured by plaster, the Brettstapel panels in the Soft House are exposed on the interior floors, walls, and ceilings.

Currently Brettstapel is predominantly manufactured in Austria, Switzerland, Germany and Norway which has a negative effect on British users, due to increased transportation costs and a subsequently a higher embodied energy.

[9] If enough interest is generated, it is possible to conceive that the industry will soon have an incentive to produce more Brettstapel in the UK using Sitka spruce; this would be a highly profitable use of a resource that is currently predominantly used for cheaper products.