Building the Future: Wood, Bioeconomy and the New Bauhaus

Europe is rethinking the way it builds. The New European Bauhaus has placed sustainability, aesthetics and inclusion at the heart of a new vision for the built environment, while the transition towards a circular and climate-neutral economy is driving innovation across construction, materials and the wider bioeconomy. Wood and other bio-based materials have an important role to play in this transformation. Advances in engineered wood, prefabrication and circular construction are opening new possibilities for buildings that can combine functionality, low-carbon solutions and attractive design. But the transition is not a simple competition between wood and conventional materials. Other sectors are rapidly innovating too, from low-carbon cement and steel to recycled and composite materials, while new technologies and business models are changing how buildings are designed, constructed, used and eventually dismantled.

This ThinkForest event will bring together policymakers, scientists and practitioners to explore what a genuinely sustainable and competitive European building system could look like. It will consider where wood and the forest-based bioeconomy can make the greatest contribution, where their limits and trade-offs lie, and what policy framework is needed to enable innovation across sectors.

Our ThinkForest event will ask:

• How can sustainability, affordability, aesthetics and functionality be brought together without locking Europe into particular technologies or materials following the New European Bauhaus ideas?
• Where can wood and bio-based materials make the greatest contribution - and where are their limits?
• How can policies stimulate innovation and accelerate the transition towards a climate-neutral built environment while allowing the best solutions to emerge?

Please note that this is only an in-person event and there will be no online streaming.