A timber scarcity in France has compelled costs up as architects battle to adjust to a brand new environmental regulation that requires public buildings to be 50 percent wood.
French architects are reporting value rises of as much as 50 per cent because the begin of the yr.
“The costs are going up each week,” mentioned Christophe Lemoal of Paris studio Lemoal-Lemoal. “Now we have two development tasks the place the wooden firm cannot give us any date for the supply as a result of they can not discover the provision.”
Michel Hardoin of Bordeaux architect A6A mentioned shortages had been affecting “all undertaking scales from the smallest to the most important.”
He added: “It primarily considerations structural timber, each posts and beams or panels.”
Final yr, France announced a new law requiring half of the supplies used to assemble public buildings to be wooden or different pure substances. The regulation is a part of the nation’s drive to turn out to be carbon impartial by 2050.
“For the time being in France there may be lots of curiosity in constructing in wooden as a result of the brand new regulation that’s being applied obliges all of the buildings to respect a sure carbon footprint,” mentioned Paris-based architect Lina Ghotmeh.
Regardless of being one of many forested international locations in Europe, with over 30 per cent of its land coated in timber, the nation’s timber merchandise trade is under-developed. This implies architects need to supply wooden from different international locations.
“We do have lots of wooden in France however we do not have sufficient industries that remodel the wooden into development supplies,” mentioned Ghotmeh.
The frenzy for timber in France has coincided with a worldwide slowdown of manufacturing because of the coronavirus pandemic. On high of this, French oak is very prized in China, which buys lumber at prices that are too high for local users.
As well as, world timber provide chains are nonetheless reeling from tariffs imposed in 2018 by former US president Donald Trump on imports of Canadian timber.
This caused softwood lumber prices to triple in the US last year, main American specifiers to order wooden from different international locations, together with key European suppliers comparable to Sweden and Finland.
Architects around the world are reporting difficulty sourcing timber as well as other materials together with metal, cement and aggregates as development exercise bounces again after the pandemic and provide chains battle to renew manufacturing ranges.
However the timber scarcity in France is especially acute because of the mixture of recent laws and a surge in tasks forward of the 2024 Summer season Olympics being held in Paris.
Ghotmeh mentioned that a number of of her tasks have been affected by the timber scarcity, together with a housing undertaking for the Olympic village that may home athletes on the video games.
“What we’re doing is both we’re adapting the tasks or placing extra finances into the tasks to have the ability to allow them to go forward and be constructed,” she mentioned.
“We’re looking for different bio-sourced supplies and looking for options to decrease our carbon footprint through the use of combined supplies,” she added. “For instance, at certainly one of our tasks within the south of France we’re utilizing an optimised wooden composite construction.”
Architects are being compelled to innovate, she added, exploring new supplies comparable to low-carbon concrete.
Ghotmeh mentioned the timber scarcity highlighted the “absurdity of our world financial system” whereby timber grown in France is exported to China and America, leaving native architects with a shortfall.
“That is fairly a catastrophe for France as a result of we have to assemble and work in wooden,” she mentioned. “If we wish to transfer nearer to our objectives of decreasing our carbon footprint we’ve got to make use of native supplies and develop native industries.”