The digital transformation has changed our understanding of life, relationships and work. In this regard, in the industrial sphere a true revolution is taking place. The roof tile factories that sprang up alongside our rivers are disappearing, giving way to the new forms of management and production of the so-called Industry 4.0 or Digital Industry.

Within the framework of this new reality, the AEGIS project arises within the Hazitek innovation programme backed by the Basque Government and the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund).

Enovos, Luxemburgo | arch: Jim Clemes | Project: VIGAM: oak glulam

Integration of state-of-the-art technology and market leaders

The IoT, or “internet of things”, refers to the connection of everyday objects with the internet, a link with the purpose of making our daily life more practical, convenient, safe and efficient. In short, this interconnection provides comprehensive knowledge about the objects themselves, their use and their context, to optimise the use we make of them.

In the case of AEGIS, the objective of people’s well-being stems from innovation in the manufacture of the various elements needed in construction and furniture, two areas in which wood, in particular quality certified, sustainable wood, plays a fundamental role.

The AEGIS project centres its efforts on integrating different technologies that make it possible to create healthy buildings and spaces by generating smart infrastructure, advanced solutions for purification and disinfection and developing hygienic surfaces.

To do this, an innovation alliance has been set up comprising leading companies in their respective areas, such as Grupo Gámiz, Orona, Irurena, Airlan, Goizper, Erreka, Ingetek and Dinycon.

Kaiserhof offices, Cologne | arch: msm Meyer Schmitz-Morkramer Rhein GmbH. | Product: VIGAM: oak glulam

The digital transformation is better if it is sustainable

Today, to achieve these safe spaces and buildings, plastic or metal elements have to be included. The day-to-day effort of Grupo Gámiz’s innovation department in the search for sustainability means that our role in this project is primarily focused on providing solutions for integrating electronics into wood so it can be reused once these electronics have reached the end of their useful life.

As the project advances, new digital transformation challenges will arise that will have to be approached from a similarly sustainable perspective. At Grupo Gámiz we are accustomed to seeing the world from this viewpoint since 1942.

La entrada Wood is the perfect solution to bring sustainability to the IoT se publicó primero en Grupo Gámiz.

Like the universe, cities tend to expand. The same thing happens to the microspaces that comprise them, the residential areas, which blend into each other, blurring limits, erasing borders, mixing origins.

Just like some specific physical spaces that are forced to extend their facilities to provide a better service. This is the case of the British school Oak House School in Barcelona, whose expansion plan included the construction of the building intended for highschool studies, with a façade clad with ACCOYA® acetylated wood.

Oak House School | Arch: Trasbordo arquitectura y gerencia de construcción S.L. | Product: Ventilated façade – Accoya® tongue and groove units

History and landscape

This extension was opened up on land belonging to the school that had been occupied by an ancient villa with gardens. The architectural studio Trasbordo worked with two priority ideas: to listen to the history of the space where the building was going to be built and to respect the values of the landscape.

They managed to do so, and many other things, with a decision related to the building material of the façade: they gave the building a skin made of ACCOYA® sustainable wood, whose aesthetic characteristics helped give the building the natural link to its location, the foot of the Collserola mountains.

Oak House School | Arch: Trasbordo arquitectura y gerencia de construcción S.L. | Product: Ventilated façade – Accoya® tongue and groove units

Oak House School | Arch: Trasbordo arquitectura y gerencia de construcción S.L. | Product: Ventilated façade – Accoya® tongue and groove units

ACCOYA® wood: the perfect building material for sustainable architecture

Its qualities as one of the most resistant woods suitable for exteriors ended up tipping the scale. The architects used panels of ACCOYA® to promote natural ventilation, control the sunlight and reduce the noise from the outside. In addition to the façade, ACCOYA® wood is also used to clad the upper floor.

Oak House School | Arch: Trasbordo arquitectura y gerencia de construcción S.L. | Product: Ventilated façade – Accoya® tongue and groove units

The revolutionary ACCOYA® wood guarantees top performance in exteriors. Its durability is achieved by subjecting the wood to a natural process, without toxins of any type, that makes the wood resistant to moulds and wood-eating insects.

ACCOYA® can take any finish and, like in northern European countries, it is used without any type of treatment. This aesthetic choice creates different, totally original façades, as the effects of the passage of time and the climate vary depending on factors such as its orientation to the sun. And with no need for maintenance.

Oak House School | Arch: Trasbordo arquitectura y gerencia de construcción S.L. | Product: Ventilated façade – Accoya® tongue and groove units

All these properties enable manufacturers and distributors of ACCOYA@ to offer a 50-year written guarantee. And perhaps even more importantly, ACCOYA® acetylated wood is a building material that is more and more highly regarded by architects seeking to continue designing their projects without limiting their creativity and promoting sustainable architecture.

La entrada Education and environment se publicó primero en Grupo Gámiz.

The circular economy is a concept of consumption based on zero waste. The aim is to put into practice the opposite of “disposable”. The idea is that everything that is used (is consumed), can be reused, recycled or reconverted at the end of its useful life. Exiting the circle means failure: converting that particular product into waste.

There are more and more companies and sectors that understand that the current model of consumption is not viable for a healthy planet and, consequently, to guarantee our survival and that of other living beings. Sustainable architecture aims to seek new roads in design and construction that help to protect the environment and, at the same time, improve people’s lifestyle habits.

Image of the circular economy

How can we get into the circle of sustainability?

The big question that arises in the profession is whether in practice it is possible to develop a circular economy in architecture. To respond to this, many architects are starting to focus a large part of their attention on the essential element of any project that they want to make reality: the construction materials.

We might not yet be ready to design buildings with absolutely all components able to be reused. In fact, today 54% of demolition materials are not reused, and go directly to landfill. But all indicators point to a very different way of building in the future. The route is starting to be set out clearly by society’s ecological awareness, world legislation and the scarcity of some materials.

Oak House School | Arch: Trasbordo arquitectura y gerencia de construcción S.L. | Product: Ventilated façade – Accoya® tongue and groove units

Let’s start, as always, with wood

Wood has been helping architecture to evolve practically since its origins. Today it has become, again, an essential building material, in sustainable innovation that drives this art towards its ecological targets.

Wood is, in itself, a natural resource. Its intrinsic qualities as organic matter present it as the sustainable material par excellence: recyclable, reusable, reconvertible. Using wooden components in construction is a big first step in integrating architecture into the circular economy.

The good news is that the advantages of wood increase with its structural properties, which make it possible for many traditional products considered decorative to earn greater importance as construction components.

VIGAM: the only oak glulam beam in the world with the CE marking for structural use

Certified wood for structural use is a solution sustainable for architects who are creative and respectful of the environment. With VIGAM, the only oak glulam beam in the world with the CE marking for structural use, manufactured and distributed exclusively by GRUPO GÁMIZ, it is possible to design, for example, wooden curtain walling without the need for steel or aluminium.

European Southern Observatory (ESO) offices | Arch: Auer & Weber – Munich | Product: Oak glulam – curtain wall

With this option, professionals can achieve a lightweight façade with warmer and more attractive interiors, with the natural personality and elegance that only wood can provide.

What is most important is to have the vision that it is possible to change the world and to act on it. Many architects already do so every day, trusting wood as the most reliable building material for projects that aspire to quality, as architecture has been doing for 12,000 years.

La entrada Architecture is key in the circular economy se publicó primero en Grupo Gámiz.

Sustainable architecture seeks construction, urban planning and habitability responses starting with a way of living, and creating, that respects the environment. It is a philosophical attitude that nevertheless requires real resources such as environmentally-friendly techniques, clean technology and ecological construction materials.

In this regard wood is the perfect ally of committed architects. Accompanying human beings since time immemorial, its natural beauty complements its properties as an ecological, recyclable and sustainable material.

Residence in Luis Manzaneque | Arch: By More Arquitectos | Product: Cladding of the exterior façade – Accoya® horizontal scantlings and oak glulams

Wood stores CO2 that is not released into the atmosphere

CO2 or carbon dioxide is a natural gas present on the planet and necessary for most living beings. Nevertheless, its extraordinary growth due to the use of fossil fuels is responsible for global warming and the greenhouse effect. What happens is that large amounts of CO2 displace the oxygen.

Wood, and the products manufactured with this material, protect our atmosphere as they are able to lock the CO2 inside, “imprisoning” the gas and, therefore, not releasing into the air.

Experts assure that building a house with wood as the basic building material prevents the emission of up to 60 tonnes of CO2 for every 100 m2.

Swedish forest

A natural material that protects the environment from its production

At the same time, the process necessary to produce wood as a building material needs a minimal amount of energy, as wood is a natural material. Manufacturing cement, steel or aluminium, for example, entails a huge energy cost, far from the energy recommendations that protect the planet and promote sustainability.

Finally, wood is an ecological building material that acts as natural thermal and acoustic insulation, so many buildings made using wood products do not require investment, or the use of non-sustainable materials, to achieve this comfort.

Certified sustainable wood

This drive for respect for the environment must have rigorous certification. Wood products that ensure the sustainability, survival and repopulation of forests and their care in the most honest and fair way possible are essential to be sure that the wood products used protect the planet.

In this regard, at GRUPO GÁMIZ we have the most important sustainable certifications, such as PEFC, FSC and EPD.

The CE marking, wood as the structural alternative to other non-sustainable materials

At GRUPO GÁMIZ we manufacture VIGAM, the only oak glulam beam in the world with the CE marking for structural use. This certification makes it possible to use our glulam beams to design sustainable structures with the beauty of oak.

Music School, Getxo | Product: Oak glulam | Photo courtesy of  El Correo

For example, many architects are currently opting for wooden curtain walling. With VIGAM the beautiful, ecological lightweight façade is a reality present in projects that seek the elegance and personality of wood.

Without doubt, wood is the sustainable material par excellence, and an essential resource for sustainable architects, who already have access to structural, sustainable and beautiful alternatives, beyond concrete, steel and aluminium.

La entrada Wooden architecture against climate change se publicó primero en Grupo Gámiz.

Wooden beams are unrivalled when providing warmth to the interiors of houses and homes. European oak beams, in particular, transmit the intrinsic beauty of nature and the eternal nobility of a top quality wood, strong and adaptable, recognisable at first glance by those with the most stringent aesthetic tastes.

Up to now, the traditional solution has been to use wooden beams to design decking, pergolas, attics, eaves, roofs, etc., and, above all, the interior decoration of ceilings in lofts and attics that sought an elegant, welcoming touch.

Detached residence, Trentino | Carpentry: Damiani-Holz&KO S.P.A./AG. | Product: Oak glulam

The good news for today’s architects, those whose projects are gradually shaping the list of successes of sustainable architecture, is that technology has helped oak glulam beams meet, in addition to a decorative function, a strictly structural construction objective.

Versatility is guaranteed. And with an exceptional extra: sustainability.

Wooden curtain walling is now possible

At GRUPO GÁMIZ we design and manufacture VIGAM, the only oak glulam beam in the world with the CE marking for structural use. Architects now have unlimited design and creation possibilities thanks to this certification. From now on, structures traditionally built with non-sustainable materials (concrete, steel, etc.) can be designed using top quality wood.

For example, sustainable change is coming to façades all over the world with the ability to build ecological curtain walling in wood, the ideal sustainable building material thanks to its aesthetic, functional and natural qualities.

If you’re looking for inspiration, this article has eight examples of real applications of oak glulam curtain walling. You’ll see how great figures in architecture, such as Renzo Piano and Herzog & de Meuron already have faith in oak for their projects.

Cambridge UK | Arch: Herzog & de Meuron | Product: Application of curtain wall – Oak glulam

One hundred percent natural architectural flexibility

In addition to their use in ecological lightweight façades, VIGAM wooden glulam beams for structural use are the perfect material for building detached houses or the refurbishment and repair of historical monuments or buildings among many other applications.

In all cases, their aesthetic results are visible after their functional achievements in structural use, marked by their guaranteed durability and greater resistance than other types of solid beams, without dimensional limits:

• High load capacity
• More lightweight compared to other materials (steel, etc.)
• Dimensional stability: the temperature does not cause them to expand or contract
• Highly resistant to fire
• Minimum environmental impact: Wood is a natural and sustainable material

Refurbishment of the Santa María cathedral in Vitoria-Gasteiz |Arch: Leandro Cámara | Product: curved oak glulams

The sustainable structural alternative is already a reality

A few years ago, the structural possibility of wood, at this level, was a dream of architects who understand their profession as a challenge with a responsibility to the environment. Today, the only wooden glulam beams in the world with the CE marking for structural use are a viable structural alternative to concrete and steel in many projects.

Thanks to VIGAM by GRUPO GÁMIZ, this dream has come true. Sustainability, aesthetics and versatility are already on the drawing boards of the world’s architects.

La entrada Oak glulam beams: there is (structural) life beyond concrete and steel se publicó primero en Grupo Gámiz.