Browsing by Subject "wood construction"
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(2019)The thesis explores students' perceptions towards wood as construction and interior material. Wood construction plays an important role in the development of bioeconomy. Today, various construction methods and materials have been developed for wood, which in turn has generated new opportunities for urban construction of multistory buildings. Nowadays, the building regulations have become less strict and many wood construction pilot projects have been built through out Finland. To research students’ perceptions towards wooden constructions helps to understand what they as future home buyers prefer. The study employs quantitative research methods. An electronic survey was sent out to the residents of student housing operating in the Helsinki metropolitan area. A total number of 531 students responded to the survey. The results suggest that higher level of knowledge about wooden multistory buildings, childhood experience of living in wooden building as well as growing up in rural areas have a positive effect on the willingness to live in a wooden multistory building. Different purchasing habits also have influence on the attitudes towards wooden multistory buildings. Eco-ethical consumers have more positive perception of wooden multistory buildings than non eco-ethical consumers. However, their positive attitude does not lead to an increase in the willingness to pay extra. Respondents who consider themselves to be sensible consumers have high positive attitude and are willing to pay slightly higher rent for an apartment that is in a wooden construct. Wooden multistory buildings are recognized as eco-friendly more frequently by consumers who identify themselves as eco-ethical, sensible and hedonistic. The same view does not apply to consumers with loose consumption habits.
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(2019)Finland has committed under Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 ̊C compared to pre-industrial levels, and to reach carbon neutrality by 2035. Finnish forests have a key role in reaching these targets. Firstly, forests contribute to climate change mitigation by sequestrating carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Secondly, forest is a valuable resource pool of renewable low carbon material that has several advantageous attributes. Long-lived harvested wood products (HWP) function as external carbon pools supporting continuous growth of biomass in the forest, and substitute for fossil-intensive material. Processing of wood material result in substantially smaller life-cycle emissions compared to its energy intensive substitutes concrete, aluminium and steel. The substitution potential of wood use is particularly significant in construction sector that caused one third of both national and global GHG emissions in 2018. In this study the substitution effect of Finnish wood products by dominant tree species was assessed by combining information on current consumption with substitution factors (SF) for structural construction, non-structural construction and energy usage from previous studies. The aim was to identify those factors that influence the substitution potential most extensively and estimate the overall climate effect of mechanical forest industry in the light of current production levels and consumption trends. Current production volumes of mechanical forest industry are averages from LUKE statistical service from 2015-2018. Proprietary information on wood use in Finland was obtained from Forecon report on use of sawn wood and wood-based panels. Contrary to previous ones, this study provides substitution factors by tree species, which has been an unidentified area of research to date. The results show that with current consumption trends, the substitution effect for pine, spruce and birch were 1.37, 1.27 and 1.04 tC / tC, respectively. This implies that every ton of carbon used in wood product result to an emission reduction of 1.04-1.37 (3.8–5 t CO2) carbon tons. Sensitivity analyses showed that the SFs for coniferous trees were highly sensitive for changes in the use of general sawn wood, which represents the largest singular product group. The substitution effect of birch was determined by its use in short-lived products. The overall substitution effect of current consumption of sawn wood and wood-based panels equals to 3.3 Mt C (12,1 MtCO2). The results imply that the external carbon stock in produced wood products (2.5 Mt C, or 9.2 MtCO2) and its substitution effect (3.2 Mt or 12.1 MtCO2) could increasingly offset the reduction in forest carbon stock (6 Mt C or 22 MtCO2) due to raw-material acquisition, if forests are managed sustainably and wood is used primary for production of long-lasting wood products.
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(2018)For the last 20 years, the state administration of Finland has supported the development of wooden multistory construction (WMC) into the residential housing market. While the number of WMC dwellings has increased, WMC is still not a normalized construction practice. Civil servants—who are responsible for complying with national strategies while being tasked to satisfy the needs of Finnish citizens—are legally entrusted to oversee and approve the planning of all zoning maps. This authority includes the power to compel builders to comply with material preferences through zoning regulations. Regardless of this gatekeeping authority, they rarely enact such regulations. This qualitative study examines the attitudes and perceptions of civil servants regarding WMC. It also examines the civil servants’ interpretation of other stakeholder opinions towards WMC. The aim was to set a precedent for current-day beliefs about WMC from the perspective of this authoritative group, given no such in-depth opinions currently exist in the literature. Semi-structured interviews were held between May 2017-January 2018. 11 civil -servants holding high-level administrative roles in city planning and development from six different municipalities were interviewed. Based on qualitative content analysis of the data, interviewed civil servants held a variety of attitudes towards WMC. Support for the implementation of WMC was due to benefits incurred by the positive qualities of the engineered wood products, which permit flexible construction technologies that directly enhance citizen lifestyles, while supporting local and national economies. Hindrances in the implementation of WMC were a result of an operating environment with poor information distribution, few WMC industry actors and limited government policy measures to support project implementation. These factors trigger high risk and high cost. Material limitations were rarely discussed, but may result in high cost or project risk. The stakeholders whose opinions were most frequently discussed included the municipalities the civil servants represented, municipality residents, and private developers. The opinions of other stakeholders (e.g. end users) were rarely mentioned. Developers are reluctant to take on WMC projects due to bottom-line mentality and perceived development risk. Residents’ opinions are equally colored with interest and skepticism. Municipality opinions were mostly in line with the perceptions shared by civil servants. All stakeholders were perceived to have greater interest in WMC if risk or prejudice were dispelled through positive, real-world experiences or exposure to WMC.
Now showing items 1-3 of 3