Wood architecture innovation workshop series - 1. Workshop
The first station of the Wood architecture innovation workshop series aimed for the participating students, lecturers and entrepreneurs to have a joint look at the main wood architecture trends. The Timber Fair offered an excellent opportunity, so the participants visited lectures and presentations in the fair that had been agreed on in advance. Later they came up with problems of wood architecture that need to be solved. They all agreed about the importance of the results of the innovation camps as an input for the students and lecturers participating in the planning. This is why it is very important to state preferably concrete tasks at the end of the series. Relating to the products that are to be developed the participants of the workshop investigate issues like which wood architecture idea can be the solution to which problem, and among the feasibility criteria they focused on functionality, design and technology.
Szabolcs Németh welcomed those who appeared on behalf of PANFA, shortly introduced the project and the results of the furniture innovation camps. He then gave the floor to Evelin Schmidt from HCS, who moderated the morning activities of the workshop and showed the participants around in the fair.
After lunch the main topic was wood architecture, Szabó Péter gave a thought-provoking lecture about the different solutions and opportunities of wood architecture. In addition, Dr. Elek László gave a presentation about the new directions for wood architecture. The participants then discussed their former experiences in relation to the lectured topics.
A lively exchange of views emerged in connection with the first afternoon performance block. The entrepreneurs recognized the paramount importance of wood architecture knowing that this industry has the capacity to reduce the impact of humans causing climate change and it even offers alternative solutions for the challenges. They mentioned the difficulties that may emerge along the opportunities (e.g. technological, legal etc.). They gave special emphasis to the cross-border cooperation and the necessity of enterprises near the border to come closer to each other.
The conversations about ideas, problems to be solved and the potential directions continued even during coffee break. After that the main focus was given to innovations in wood architecture. The morning block was closed with the presentation of some wood architecture innovations.
The majority of the problems outlined were the bottlenecks in the technological capability, feasibility, market maturity, and availability of human resources of the right amount and quality. With regard to the range of possible directions of the camp, there was a broad consensus on the concept of multifunctional, environmentally-friendly, community-based conceptions for special target groups. The participants set out the conceptualization of the corresponding development concepts and the definition of job descriptions as the main task of the following workshops.
At the end of the extremely good-natured and creative-minded workshop, Dr. László Elek took the floor and summed up the statements in a few sentences, and invited the participants to a wooden construction innovation camp in mid-September in Sopron.
At the workshop we provided care for the participants: 2 coffee breaks (snack buffet with mineral water, coffee, tea) and a two-course menu lunch.