wood passage – from tree to house!

An installation consisting of four wooden gates in the middle of the city makes the transformation from tree to house a sensual experience. It tells the story of the contribution of modern timber construction to climate- and resource-friendly cities of the future.

The tree grows in the forest - the tree becomes wood - the wood becomes the house. With simple pictogrammatic signs in forty steps, slice by slice cut out of large blocks of wood, the "wood passage" conveys the transformation from tree to house. When walking through the archways, each with their imposing size of 4.3 by 4.3 metres, the special materiality of wood can be experienced. At the same time, the walk-in installation is a playful mouthpiece for the ecological advantages of building with wood.
13 cubic metres of wood are used in the installation. This amount grows back in Austria's forests in 13 seconds. 13 tonnes of CO2 are permanently bound in the wood of the four gates. This is equivalent to the pollutant emissions of a passenger car in 8 years. 
Wood is constantly growing back in the forest and is available. 30 million cubic metres of wood are produced in Austria's forests every year, only about 26 million cubic metres of which are harvested. The rest remains in the forest and steadily increases the wood supply.
40 percent of all resources consumed go into the construction sector, and globally this sector is also responsible for 40 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. Wood replaces building materials from finite resources. Houses made of wood bind CO2 in the long term and thus are gentle on the climate. The increased use of wood in construction is creating a second forest in our cities.

"wood passage" is an initiative of proHolz Austria, proHolz Bayern and Lignum Switzerland. The installation is touring European cities and, after stops in Munich, Linz, Augsburg, Innsbruck and Basel, can now be seen in Vienna for the first time.

www.woodpassage.eu

Initiative of
proHolz Austria/A, proHolz Bayern/D, Lignum Schweiz/CH

concept, draft, design
Atelier Andrea Gassner, Feldkirch/A
www.atelierandreagassner.at

planning:
TU München, Fakultät für Architektur (Hermann Kaufmann, Maren Kohaus), München/D
www.holz.ar.tum.de

timber construction and statics
Fetz Holzbau, Egg/A
www.fetz-holzbau.at

photo: © proHolz Austria_Kurt Hoerbst