Blümlimattweg 15, Thun
2021
At Blümlimattweg 15 in Thun, Switzerland's first apartment building with a basement made of wood with TS3 joints was built. The building is also the Living Lab of the DeepWood research project and has innovative approaches to building physics.
The project
An apartment building full of innovations was built in Thun. No concrete or steel was used in the entire house with 5 residential units - not even in the basement. No steel was used - not even in the basement. Cross-laminated timber panels lie on top of a 160 mm thick insulation board. Black insulation encases the wood for moisture protection. The interior walls are non-load-bearing; columns and the exterior walls support the cross-laminated timber floor slab. Thus, the basement is very flexible in use and can be used in many ways, thanks to the pleasant indoor climate due to the visible and tangible wood.
The house in Thun is also the living lab of the research project DeepWood together with the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and the Bern University of Applied Sciences. With DeepWood, the planning methods of Building Information Modeling (BIM) are are being further developed.
The construction
The basement is a solid wooden structure made of cross-laminated timber panels. TS3 joints allow the floor slabs without joists. The exterior walls in timber frame construction are optimally insulated, which makes it possible to dispense with a heating system. After all, there is no conventional heating system in this building. Instead, there are Swedish stoves in the apartments and a warm air supply as a backup.
The challenges
The Blümlimattweg
was the first time 45-degree joints were grouted in a construction project. Experience
TS3 had only gained experience with this from research projects. Another challenge
of this project were the cold temperatures during grouting. For the first time
winter construction measures had to be developed and used. The joints were locally
heated.
Construction data
- Number of floors: 3
- Gross floor area: 998 m²
- Cross laminated timber: 178 m³
- TS3 technology: 360 linear meters of joints
Architecture
HLS Architects
8004 Zurich
Client
Yamanakako AG
3600 Thun
Timber engineer
Timbatec Timber Construction Engineers
8000 Zurich
Timber construction
Stuber timber construction
3054 Schüpfen
GU/TU
Stuber timber construction
3054 Schüpfen
Photography
Nils Sandmeier
2501 Biel
Images
Trade press
Long live self-sufficiency?
UND Generationentandem, Issue No. 43.2022 – Wood should not be a fuel, because it is probably the most sustainable renewable building material there is. This is what Stefan Zöllig and Regula A. Bircher believe. In an interview, they talk about their convictions and present their «house without heating». (Report in german)
Research project: basement construction with wood
Holz-Zentralblatt, Issue No. 26 - In order to avoid steel and concrete almost completely in building construction, basements would have to be eliminated - or built in timber. In Thun, the first basement completely in timber in Switzerland has been built.
