BUILDING WITH KIRI

As timber for constructing buildings, kiri is still an insider tip – at least in Europe. It is very well suited to building construction. Find out more about its potential here.

Every fifth building in Germany is made of wood

Timber construction is on the rise. In Berlin, the German government is currently erecting a seven-storey office building made of wood. The building is made almost entirely of prefabricated wooden modules and will house the offices of 400 members of parliament. Politicians are therefore very much in step with current trends.

According to the German Federal Statistical Office, one in five houses in Germany is now timber built. But spruce, the most common raw material, is becoming increasingly scarce and expensive – now is the time to build using kiri.

Wooden buildings made of kiri: centuries of tradition in Asia

Kiri wood (botanic name: paulownia) is still an insider tip for house building in Europe. In Asia, the wood has been used for centuries in house and furniture construction. The reasons for this are many, with the most prominent being kiri’s lighter weight. At 270 kilos per cubic metre, kiri is lighter than most woods; spruce, for example, weighs around two-thirds more.

Kiri is therefore unbeatable where weight is important, for example, for extensions, upper storeys, tiny houses and mobile homes.

Kiri is also highly suitable for interior fittings and façade cladding. It is characterised by extremely low swelling and shrinkage, is strong, weatherproof, flame retardant and insulates almost twice as well as spruce. Moreover, it is easy to work with because it does not splinter and excels at absorbing lacquers and glazes.

Building with Kiri in certified quality

Its suitability as a building material has now been proven. Our wood has been tested by the Brandenburg Materials Testing Institute (MPA). This resulted in a durability of 1v, meaning the wood is particularly robust against basidiomycetes. Accordingly, no chemical treatment of the façade is necessary. With its A+ emission class, kiri is also perfect for interior fittings, creating a healthy living environment.

In short, it is a wood that seems to have been invented for the modular lightweight construction of today and tomorrow. The first steps have already been taken. We have recently developed, together with the company Derix, a CLT room module made of kiri – the KiriCube, which we will soon be presenting here again in a separate article.

Assembling the KiriCube. Clear to see is the new type of cross laminated timber made of kiri.

The prototype was recently mounted on a chassis and is intended to become a mobile sauna. Not quite a kiri office building yet – but it won’t be long before that happens.