Only the house that stands for a long time counts

"Make an ellipse out of the circle - as long an ellipse as possible," someone once told me. It's about the circular economy and scarcity of resources ♻️.

This corresponds exactly to the logic of timber house builder Bernhard Pointinger in Grieskrichen: once his timber houses have been built, they should stand for as long as possible - and what's more: when the houses are no longer needed, the wood is reused. Sounds very good. And how do you achieve that?

For Niklas Ruprechter, Pointinger's architect, there are a few nuts to crack in the details, but in principle, longevity is simple.

We just have to,

✅ Build as multifunctional as possible and design for changing lifestyles.

✅ Build so solidly that a foreseeable increase in density is possible later by adding storeys.

✅ and maintain the buildings so well that they last as long as 600-year-old church roof trusses.

"And if the house has to make way at some point, it will end up as a raw materials warehouse," adds Pointinger.

And what does a durable wooden house have to do with the climate?

The longer a wooden house stands, the longer it acts as a carbon store. In this way, a "forest of wooden houses" could be created on a mass scale. This is the building turnaround that the renowned climate researcher Hans Joachim Schellnhuber has called for with his "Bauhaus of the Earth" calls for.

Thanks to the company @pointingerbau910 for the partnership.