Reusable wooden building blocks. Construction principles since the industrialization of the building industry
Project Description
More than one third of global energy consumption and nearly 40% of CO2 emissions are caused by the construction and use of buildings. In the Liechtenstein-Switzerland-Austria region, around 80% of total waste is generated by the construction industry; in Liechtenstein itself, this share exceeds 90%. Against this background, strategies for reducing emissions and construction waste through closed material cycles and the reuse of building components are of central importance for a sustainable construction industry. As a natural and renewable building material, wood offers particularly high potential for carbon storage and substitution. Alongside established and extensively researched timber construction methods such as timber framing, panel construction, and log construction, the development of small modular timber building bricks opens up new perspectives for material-appropriate, demountable, reusable, and resource- efficient construction. Although modular block systems in solid timber, fibre-based, or hybrid variants have already been documented in numerous applications and patents-particularly since the post-war period-and are currently being rediscovered in the context of sustainability debates, they have so far neither been systematically studied nor become established in the construction industry, despite their evident advantages. The project "Reusable Timber Bricks" provides the first comparative analysis of the diverse construction approaches in an overall perspective and evaluates them against the background of their economic conditions, manufacturing processes, and available materials. Its aim is to demonstrate the potential of timber building bricks for the specific conditions of the Liechtenstein region-particularly with regard to available raw materials, processing methods, and business structures-and thereby to establish a sound basis for further follow-up projects.
Relevance to Liechtenstein
This work reinforces the central research focus of the Building Heritage & Upcycling Research Group and addresses the core themes of the University of Liechtenstein: innovation, sustainability, and responsibility in construction and architecture. The development of a research field aimed at promoting a circular construction economy contributes to the strategic direction of the country of Liechtenstein. There is an intensive exchange with the ZirkuLie platform of the Lebenswertes Liechtenstein Foundation, whose primary goal is to promote a circular economy in the country. The focus on wood as a regional building material also opens up concrete prospects for follow-up projects with local timber construction companies, as well as the development and application of innovative building systems from the region and for the region. The project is embedded in a broad field of expertise and research at the University of Liechtenstein. In particular, the work of doctoral candidate Gabriela Dimitrova (Building Heritage and Upcycling Research Group) offers an initial historical and theoretical approach to the topic of modular building blocks, with a focus on reusable bricks and the case study on the production of Novadom [Dimitrova & Stockhammer 2026, forthcoming]. With regard to the construction potential of hardwood and lower-quality wood, the work of doctoral candidate Livia Herle (Crafts and Structures Division) is also worth noting. She is investigating ways to maximize the use of wood before it is used for energy, drawing on an analysis of regionally available wood resources. The focus is particularly on the use of short, preferably solid wood elements, as well as structural systems that allow for both easy assembly and efficient disassembly.
