Valorisation du bois d’industrie en bois d’œuvre : conception numérique en bois rond, du relevé forestier au projet architectural

Details

Supervisors

Weinand Yves ; Meyer, Sandrine ; Thielemans, Benoit ; Van Moeseke, Geoffrey

Faculty

Faculté d'architecture, d'ingénierie architecturale, d'urbanisme

Degree label

Master [120] en architecture, à finalité spécialisée (Bruxelles)

Abstract

enWood used in contemporary construction is, to a large extent, the product of a highly industrialized system. It is harvested, transported, processed, calibrated, dried, finger-jointed, glued, treated, packaged, and shipped. This sequence of operations, often carried out in geographically dispersed locations, results in significant energy consumption and complex logistics. In the process, the material loses part of its initial environmental value. This is particularly evident in the case of beech from the Sonian Forest: 20,000 m³ are felled annually, and 75% are processed in Asia before re-entering the European market as finished products. The issue is twofold: how can we work with wood in an ecologically responsible way while relocating the added value of its transformation? To address this question, this work focuses on industrial wood, referring to the less noble parts of the tree: small diameters, forks, and strongly curved sections. Today, these components are typically turned into panels, paper, or bioenergy. The ambition here is to introduce an additional step in the lifecycle of this underutilized material, by using it structurally in its raw, round form. However, structural use of roundwood requires rethinking our tools and methods. Two doctoral theses lay the foundation for this research. The first, by Petras Vestartas, “Design-to-Fabrication Workflow for Raw-Sawn-Timber using Joinery Solver,” explores the design process with roundwood by offering a tool for generating wood-to-wood joints and robotic toolpath mapping. The second, currently ongoing, is by Damien Gilliard: “Biotope-aware round wood architecture,” which seeks to connect forest management and the construction sector by proposing a system based on morphological scanning, species recognition, and the digital cataloging of timber resources for use in the design phase. The objective of this work is twofold : on the one hand, to document a process for the valorization of roundwood applied to the Sonian Forest through digital tools, on the other hand, to identify the levers and obstacles linked to its implementation within a local context.