The meeting took place on December 12th, 2019, and it was organized by Brasov Metropolitan Agency and URBASOFIA. A total number of 27 stakeholders attended the meeting. Mr. Dragos David, director of the Brasov Metropolitan Agency (AMB) gave the opening speech, followed by Mircea Segarceanu, who gave a brief presentation of the meeting context and aims. Also, Sabina Leopa from Urbasofia presented the BiW project and the benefits in terms of wood in construction.
Roundtable discussion
During the introductory part, it was mentioned that Brasov will be a pilot for a digital technical solution for retrofitting/expanding an existing building by using wood based materials. The participants suggested that a practical implementation of wood based construction would greatly improve the impact at local level for creating the value chain, not to mention contributing to the changing of perception of the local developers regarding the use of such materials.
The Municipality of Brasov, owner of the pilot building, displayed interest in implementing the technical solution provided by the BiW consortium (using funding from future structural funds) and also in adopting such technology in retrofitting/expanding other buildings. It was also mentioned that the County Council of Covasna (neighbouring county to Brasov) has an initiative to only use wood in public administration building construction and retrofitting/expansion.
At the roundtable of discussion participated:
- Golicza Zoltan, SC Prod and Perst Alexander SRL
- Bagvly Miklos Levente, Pro Wood Cluster Chairman
- Kadar Rezso, Pro Wood manager
- Oana Paraschiv, Kronospan
- Deacon Florin and Mihai Rosca, architects
- Vajda Lajos, Cluster Green Energy
- Gabriela Vlad, Brasov City Hall
- Chiciudean Teodor, Cavilas.
Good practices in Romania
The second part was focused on good practices in Romania. Mr. Marius Soflete, co-founder of Inginerie Creativa, presented some good practices of building with wood, including an office building in Oradea. Details on the projects realized and the experience of Mr. Soflete can be found on www.soflete.ro.
All the experience of design and execution accumulated has been transposed into applied courses that Mr. Soflete supports in partnership with the Order of Architects of Romania and with the Institute of Research in Construction in Bucharest.
Barriers identified were the legislative ones caused by unclear legislation regarding the high wooden constructions and the qualified human resource unavailable for this type of construction.
Perceived strengths and opportunities:
There is a very strong local tradition of building in wood, and in the Brasov region, all the stakeholders along the production link are present and well consolidated
Ancillary services, training, forestry university represent key stakeholders to be further engaged. There is an interest of the Brasov Transilvania University to enrich the student programme with new material. There are also other several professional schools and technological schools in the area which offer forestry and construction specialisation programmes
Construction of the airport represents an opportunity and will increase housing demand
There is a very high interest and involvement of the Order of Architects and architectural companies which can serve as ambassadors of tall wood buildings in the relationship with beneficiaries
Conclusions and next steps
Overall, the discussion was lively and productive. The consensus of the participants was that there is a need to interact more often and to continue to work towards the project goals. The concrete inputs from the consortium will need to be further clarified within the BiW consortium. The set of three workshops will support the integration of tall wood buildings in the strategic development framework at metropolitan level, with the specific purpose of identifying concrete actions and financeable projects to enable tall wood building construction and retrofitting, as part of a larger climate adaptation and resilience urban strategy.
In January 2020, AMB and Urbasofia will send the participants an invitation to join the working group at local level, which will be active in creating the local added value chain.
The working group will have defined objectives, the action plan and the governance structure. Apart from the three meetings planned through the Build-in-Wood project, the working group will meet whenever it deems necessary, the meeting space being made available by the AMB.
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