Despite the exceptional COVID-pandemic situation experienced, we are now back on track with a physical gathering at the 13th World Conference on Timber Engineering (WCTE2023) in Oslo, Norway. Thanks to extensive effort by our Chilean colleagues, who organized the conference in 2021, WCTE could take place also during the COVID pandemic. We all do, however, appreciate to be back in the traditional physical conference context.
The slogan of the WCTE2023 is: Timber for a Livable Future. This is indeed a relevant slogan.
We are now experiencing increased interest in timber as a structural material as well as wood used for surface in architecture. Timber is in fact used in many different types of products and structures. It is a bio-based material, in which humanity has created shelters, tools and objects of art. Throughout history humans have adapted to timber. How do we take this wisdom into our modern timber structures?
Climate change is a driving force and pushes all of us to toward severe chang- es with more environmentally friendly, sustainable and circular materials in our built practice. Everyone with an interest in wood as a construction material in research, industry and education has a role for development of the field of timber engineering so that we can meet future demands and societal needs.
The forerunner of WCTE dates back to May 1984, at the Pacific Timber Engineering Conference (PTEC) in Auckland, New Zealand. The first World Conference on Timber Engineering (WCTE) took place in 1998 in Montreux, Switzerland. It was decided to consolidate the former world events and to introduce a biennial rhythm with consecutive conferences in Europe, America, Asia & Pacific. The conference has been hosted in the Nordic region only once before, in Lahti, Finland in 2004.
The conference has maintained its important position on the world scene with currently more than 600 papers accepted for presentation. WCTE2023 is the major event within the timber engineering society in 2023 and has attracted more than 800 attendants and more than 600 presentations. Participants have the opportunity to share ideas on nearly any subject related to timber engineering, from codes of practice, regulations and legislations, to innovations, new practices, and future trends of bio-based sustainable and circular building materials used in construction. WCTE2023 reflects the state-of-the-art in timber engineering.
This proceeding provides a collection of all the scientific contributions to the conference. The conference has attracted a wide range of academics, scientists, researchers, students, designers, policymakers, and other industrialists with a wide variety of backgrounds, including fields of engineering, materials, sustainable development, architecture, ecological technologies, biomaterials, materials sciences, environmental engineering, government agencies, end-users, and more.
The Organizing Committee of WCTE2023 would like to express our sincere gratitude to all contributors and participants for their carefully prepared, stimulating, and interesting manuscripts.
Thanks are also extended to the members of the WCTE2023 International Scientific Committee for review of nearly one thousand submissions. Without their dedicated efforts, the conference and the proceedings would not have been realized in this way. The cooperation of the authors in accepting reviewers’ suggestions and revising their manuscripts accordingly is greatly appreciated.
The organization of a conference of this scale was possible with the support and contributions from many organizations and individuals including financial support. We are grateful to Innovation Norway for supporting grants for conference preparation. We also would like to express our thanks to the Oslo Convention Bureau for their important support throughout the entire process, from application to implementation of WCTE 2023.
We would like to thank the Norwegian supporting organisations Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet), Norwegian Institute of Wood Technology (Treteknisk), Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO), SINTEF and Bergen School of Architecture (BAS).
We would like to thank our platinum sponsors SWECO, Paper Province and Region Värmland, and the gold sponsors Moelven and Aanesland Treindustri, as well as sponsors on silver, bronze and supporting level.
We would like to thank PEFC Norge, Moelven, Hunton, Ny Struktur, Splitkon, County Governor of Vestland, Norwegian Wood Cluster, NTNU Wood, Wood Works Cluster, Norsk Folkemuseum, for participating in planning and preparations for the technical conference tours and other events.
A special thank you goes to AHO, SWECO, Aanesland Treindustrier, Bergene Holm, SirkTRE and Bymiljøetaten Oslo kommune, for making the WCTE-pavilion outside the conference venue such an exciting demonstration of timber engineering in real life.
We would also like to thank all those who have devoted their time and effort to the organization of the conference. We would like to thank the Coordinating Council of the WCTE for support and trust as well as our colleagues in WCTE2021 from Chile for sharing their expertise and experience with us.
Finally, we would like to thank the four hosting institutions, NMBU, NTNU, AHO and the City of Oslo, for cooperation and efforts in the process of planning and conducting the conference.
Oslo, 18 June 2023
Conference chairs
Kjell Arne Malo
Anders Q. Nyrud
Kristine Nore
Knut Werner Lindeberg Alsén
