The HiBiWood project promotes environmentally friendly, sustainable, high-performance building solutions in wood. In the near future timber buildings will form a much bigger part of the European and international built environment. In the future sustainable high-performance buildings in wood will be designed and constructed with environmentally friendly wood components, but some amount of steel and concrete construction materials will still remain to satisfy structural, fire prevention, moisture absorption and economic requirements. Using the combination of wood, concrete and steel will provide sustainable solutions to building structures as well as potential to improve building performance and design. Architects and engineering companies have already started designing high-performance modern wooden buildings. However, now higher education of designers and engineers mostly focuses on steel and concrete buildings, and sometimes on low-rise wooden buildings. In order to satisfy the needs of the employment market, it is necessary to prepare students with innovative applied skills in the area of design, construction and onsite construction management of high-performance building construction in wood. To educate a new generation of students, it is necessary to develop and integrate an innovative multi-disciplinary BSc/BA study module. Project HiBiWood aims to fulfill the future demands in higher education of students in sustainable, high-performance building construction in wood by transnational and trans-disciplinary innovative student-centered learning approaches. Objectives: 1. To develop and deliver a new trans-disciplinary module on sustainable, high-performance wooden building systems, which meets the needs of the HEIs and employment market representatives. 2. To improve competencies of students and teachers in problem solving and team work, innovative thinking, motivation, awareness of cross-professional project input and project management by using PBL, learning by doing and blended learning approaches. 3. To educate all participants (students, teachers, entrepreneurs) in the field of the sustainable, high-performance building solutions in wood construction. 4. To ensure open awareness of the project results to local, national, EU level and international target groups. The project will be implemented by five HEI's and one company from Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, Poland and Finland. Main target groups are higher education institutions, in particular teachers/trainers and BSc/BA students, whose specialization is directly related to architecture, civil engineering, construction management or similar subjects. Moreover, it is envisaged that the project will be relevant for business companies and will foster further development of sustainable, high-performance building solutions in wood construction. In frames of the project four intellectual outputs will be developed: 1) Competency framework; 2) BSc/BA module “Sustainable, High-Performance Wooden Building Systems ” (9 ECTS); 3) E-learning platform; 4) Best Practices. At least 18 teachers/trainers will participate in intensive training course in Finland, where competences on innovative project based learning, learning by doing and blended learning approaches will be developed. New trans-disciplinary module and e-learning platform will be jointly developed by partners from five countries in consultation with business enterprises. The new module will be tested in three intensive learning/teaching courses that will take place in Austria, Poland and Latvia. International building and construction project phases, which are used in most EU countries, will be adapted in the HiBiWood project as a main template, namely brief phase, outline proposal, scheme design, detail 1 and detail 2 phases. In total 75 BSc/BA students will be educated. Students will gain innovative trans-disciplinary knowledge in sustainable, high-performance building solutions in wood; using innovative learning approaches they will develop their research, teamwork, communication, and cooperation, creative thinking, problem-solving skills required in modern daily work environment. Stakeholders whose activities are related to construction and, in particular, wood construction, e.g. associations and private enterprises, will be involved in development of new module, therefore they will have an opportunity to share their expertise and include the topics that will help to acquire competences, required in employment market. In this way collaboration between academic and business sector will be strengthened. At least 20 international and 40 local participants from HEIs, educational authorities and business companies will attend the international conference in Latvia, where innovative intellectual outputs will be presented. It will result in increased public awareness about the outputs of the project.
HiBiWood project aimed to fulfill the future demands in higher education of students in sustainable, high-performance building construction in wood by transnational and trans-disciplinary innovative student-centered learning approaches. Objectives: 1. To develop and deliver a new trans-disciplinary module on sustainable, high-performance wooden building systems, which meets the needs of the HEIs and employment market representatives. 2. To improve competencies of students and teachers in problem solving and team work, innovative thinking, motivation, awareness of cross-professional project input and project management by using PBL, learning by doing and blended learning approaches. 3. To educate all participants (students, teachers, entrepreneurs) in the field of the sustainable, high-performance building solutions in wood construction. 4. To ensure open awareness of the project results to local, national, EU level and international target groups.
Immediate actions need to be taken to reach the sustainability targets for 2050 set by the European Commission for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The HiBiWood project addressed the need for creating sustainable solutions for the design, construction, and related sectors to tackle future environmental challenges. It promoted the sustainable, environmentally friendly design and construction of high-performance hybrid timber buildings. Timber is best used in combination with other materials, taking advantage of the attributes of each material. Utilizing the high strength-to-weight ratio of timber, hybrid construction can combine engineered timber with concrete and/or steel to create cost-effective and sustainable high-performance timber building systems. Using the combination of wood, concrete and steel provides a sustainable high-performance solution to building structures as well as the potential to improve building performance design. In order to satisfy the needs of the labour market, it is necessary to prepare students with innovative applied skills. The project addressed skill gaps and labour market needs in trans-disciplinary, transnational education of students on sustainable, high-performance timber construction. For this purpose, innovative student-centered pedagogical approaches were used.