Wood as an Exposed Building Material for Indoor Climate Adaptation

Abstract

Use of massive wood has increased during the last decade. The concept of massive wood, mainly as cross laminated timber elements (CLT), has become a popular building method for new constructions, both in public and private sector. Massive wood elements take advantage of wood as building material, also as an indoor climate buffer. Moholt 50|50 is a new student-housing project in Trondheim, Norway, which consists of five mass timber towers. Each of them with eight stories built in CLT on top of a concrete storey. Apart from the student homes, the buildings host facilities, such as activity center, kindergarten, commercial areas and a library, also built in CLT. This makes Moholt 50|50 a significant wooden living lab in Trondheim. The building technique follows the development from the first Norwegian CLT student housing built in Ås in 2012, and reproduced later on in similar patterns in other Norwegian cities, as Tromsø, Haugesund, Drammen, Fredrikstad, Halden, Hønefoss, Porsgrunn and Trondheim. Research on comfort and operation cost coupled to indoor surfaces are included in project Moholt 50|50. The towers are built according to Norwegian low energy standards. All surfaces are treated with water solvent varnish, apart from two stories in one of the Moholt timber towers. Four stories are instrumented to document the difference in the behavior of untreated and treated wooden surfaces. Measurements show a different indoor climate of the stories with untreated surfaces. The measurements presented give preliminary results of a measurement period which, when finished, will include one year of inhabited studios from the date of moving in.