Building with CREE, a construction system with multiple advantages
Designed and developed in Austria, this off-site produced modular construction system is innovative and low in carbon. In a few weeks, it will be available in Belgium.
The construction sector is currently facing major challenges. One of these is the development of off-site construction so that it will one day become the preferred construction method.
Off-site construction is defined as a construction that is produced and assembled in a factory before being installed on site. Off-site construction is well developed in countries such as Austria and Germany (where a quarter of new houses are built using this method), but it has yet to find its way into Belgium.
Wood Shapers is firmly committed to playing its part in getting off-site construction up and running, as it has held an exclusive licence for Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland since 2019 for CREE, a system developed by a company run by Hubert Rhomberg in Dornbirn, Austria. This town in Vorarlberg, a region known for its innovations in sustainable construction, is where the first CREE building was constructed in 2012. The nine-storey building (ground floor plus eight upper floors) was erected in 12 days by eight workers. Known as LCT (Live Cycle Tower), it has since been emulated many times, mainly in Austria and Germany, but similar constructions can be found all over the world. Since 2012, CREE has developed synergies with 12 partners like Wood Shapers, notably in Japan, the United States, Switzerland, Portugal, Singapore, Denmark and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
In 2021, more than 110,000 m2 was constructed using CREE, and a projection for 2022 shows 130,000 m2 in progress. There is no doubt that the system will continue to evolve steadily in the years to come. Its advantages and qualities are indeed manifold. And, in a world where construction using timber – a highly renewable material – is becoming more and more popular, the CREE system will play a major role.
CREE consists of two main categories: floors and walls. The floors are prefabricated, hybrid timber-concrete slabs. Without going into too much detail, the wooden beams are placed in the lower part of the slabs (thus giving a finished timber look) and the concrete in the upper part. The facade walls are timber framed with exposed glulam columns. These walls are also manufactured in the factory and arrive on site with the load-bearing columns fixed to a caisson. Once assembled, the façade elements are structurally load-bearing.
As we have seen with the LCT building in Dornbirn, one of the advantages of this construction system is that it can be installed very quickly once the elements have been transported to the construction site, where noise and dust pollution is also greatly reduced. Since it is based on factory construction and assembly, it is also independent of the weather. The work can go ahead, come rain or shine.
However, the other great quality of the system is that it is completely parameterised with a regular grid, which allows optimisation of the materials used. In simple terms, this means that not only can the wood be put in the right place, but also that more timber constructions can be produced using less wood.
To achieve this, the CREE system relies entirely on BIM, the construction information modelling system that everyone is familiar with today. The components are predefined in a BIM component library. Standardisation and optimisation are the key words and lead to fast, efficient production under optimal working conditions, with no waste. “The CREE system also enables architects, investors or builders to plan and design their projects with great cost advantages over the entire project life cycle. What’s more, this modular construction method allows the system to be applied worldwide and to use local resources, even for large-scale constructions,” explains Hubert Rhomberg.
CREE is also a sustainable building system as it relies on bio-based materials such as timber (very widely used) and insulation. Research programmes are under way for the concrete part of the slabs. In this respect, Germany is slowly but surely moving towards the production of hybrid slabs with recycled concrete.
It will not be long before the first CREE building arrives in Belgium. The first elements of the future headquarters of CFE (and also of BPI Real Estate, BPC Group and Wood Shapers) in Auderghem, known as “Wood Hub”, are currently in production. Their delivery to the site is scheduled for mid-June.
With completion planned for autumn 2023, the Wood Hub will be a “smart building” in all its glory, optimising the user experience. It will be heated and cooled by geothermal energy and heat pumps coupled with photovoltaic panels. And, in keeping with the world of tomorrow that awaits us, Wood Hub will operate without the use of any fossil fuels.
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