Timber structures 3.0 - New technology for multi-axial, slim, high performance timber structures

Until today, all known timber building systems allow only slabs with a uniaxial load bearing action. Thereby, in comparison to normal reinforced concrete slabs, timber slabs are often thick, expensive and complicated to build. The reason for this is that there is no efficient connection technology to rigidly connect timber slab elements to each other. Alternative solutions are hybrid structural systems with concrete or steel, however, this combination of materials results in some disadvantages especially in terms of weight, ecology, construction time and costs. In the framework of a large research project a new timber slab system has been developed and already tested in first real applications. The developed slab system is designed for housing, commercial and industrial buildings. The slab system works as a flat slab carrying vertical loads biaxial and consists of timber slab elements like CLT glued together on site with a high performance butt-joint bonding technology. Research about the central slab element, the butt-joint bonding and fire tests have already been performed. The research showed the feasibility of this innovation. In 2015 a first prototype was built in Thun, Switzerland. A large three year research project started 2016 with the goal to reach market maturity.