From forest cottage to town house
The children at the Andersengasse kindergarten in Graz now have a sustainable, ecological meeting, play and feel-good house made of cross-laminated timber, giving them a little piece of the second forest in their playground.
Mayr-Melnhof Holz, Mayr-Melnhof-Saurau Forstbetrieb and Strobl Holzbau handed over the "Waldhäusl" to the kindergarten on 14 March in the presence of Graz City Councilor for Education Kurt Hohensinner for appropriate subsequent use.
From forest cottage to town house
The smart little house made of the future building material cross laminated timber, which we call the "Waldhäusl", is a success story of regional, sustainable value creation and partnership-based cooperation.
In 2023, the idea of Mayr-Melnhof-Saurau Forstbetrieb and Mayr-Melnhof Holz Holding AG was realised in cooperation with Nussmüller Architekten ZT GmbH and Strobl Bau - Holzbau GmbH. Its history is fit for the future:
- Planted many decades ago in the Styrian forests of the Mayr-Melnhof forest, the local spruce trees for the "Waldhäusl" were responsibly tended and finally harvested.
- Creative minds from the Nussmüller architecture studio contributed their wealth of experience and drew the "Waldhäusl" in three dimensions using modern CAD programmes. This allowed us to visualise it for the first time.
- Mayr-Melnhof Holz took over the digital data, transferred it to the ultra-modern CNC controls of the fully automated joinery systems and produced the cross laminated timber required for the "Waldhäusl" with millimetre precision.
- The excellently trained carpenters from Strobl Holzbau took their tools to heart, put the individual parts together professionally, assembled the building elements for this "Waldhäusl" with passion, gave it a weatherproof roof and walls made of natural shingles.
- Children fill the "Waldhäusl", which has now become a "Stadthäusl", with laughter, play and joy. Mayr-Melnhof Holz, Mayr-Melnhof-Saurau Forstbetrieb and Strobl Holzbau donated the little house to the Andersengasse kindergarten in Graz.
Fashion show stage, presentation room, meeting house & venue
In 2023, the Waldhäuschen was used for the first time at the forest festival on Graz's main square, where it served as a stage for a fashion show. The next stop was the open day to mark the opening of Mayr-Melnhof Holz's high-tech cross-laminated timber plant in Leoben. As a space and object, it presented to the guests what is possible with wood as a building material and the feel-good atmosphere that is inherent in wooden houses. At the Stadt-Land-Fest festival on Leoben's main square, it delighted the public not only as a stage for the band. The children of the Andersengasse kindergarten will now use the Waldhäuschen town house as a place to meet, retreat and play.
Sustainability makes sense: wooden houses make a second forest
Sustainability is anchored in the Waldhäuschen-Stadthäuschen in many ways. Even the youngest children can easily understand what the more than 300-year-old term actually means and why sustainability is based on three pillars: ecological, economic and social:
Wood from a forest that has been sustainably managed for generations in the immediate vicinity is a valuable, renewable raw material: trees are harvested and new trees are planted that bind the harmful greenhouse gas CO2 and release the oxygen that is essential for life. 1 m3 of wood stores around 1 tonne of CO2 . Only as much is taken from the forest as grows back: the principle of sustainability! In Styria, for example, the wood for a detached house grows back every 4 minutes. Short transport routes lead to the nearby sawmill, which produces the sawn timber that is later needed for the production of cross-laminated timber, among other things. The cross laminated timber production adjacent to the sawmill: here the sawn timber lamellas are carefully sorted and glued together crosswise to form dimensionally stable cross laminated timber panels. Delivered to the timber construction company ready for assembly on site or project-specifically bound, the cross laminated timber panels are used as walls and ceilings in both modern and traditional timber construction. The carbon stored by the trees remains stored in the building components throughout their entire service life. In this way, timber houses become a second forest and make an indispensable contribution to the fight against climate change, for us and for the future of our children and grandchildren.
Great joy among the children
The children at Andersengasse kindergarten in Graz are delighted. Now they have their own little wooden house and a piece of a second forest in their playground!
City Councillor for Education Kurt Hohensinner, City of Graz: "The future of our country is growing up in our kindergartens, just as the sustainable material of the future, wood, is growing up in the forests. It is therefore a perfect fit that the forest house in the Andersengasse kindergarten has found a good and suitable location for the future. A big thank you to those responsible at Mayr-Melnhof Holz und Forst for putting this fantastic showcase project together."
Richard Stralz, CEO of Mayr-Melnhof Holz Holding AG: "This project is a wonderful example of sustainability: the subsequent use after the "exhibition trip" was already taken into account during the planning phase, thus ensuring that this little house will remain as a second forest that binds carbon for decades to come."
Willibald Ehrenhöfer, Forest Director Mayr-Melnhof-Saurau Forstbetrieb: "Sustainable action starts small ... - Children are the future of our society, and small trees are the future of our forest. It takes love, prudent education, care, space and time for children to become stable adults. It is the same with our forests; only through careful management and use can our forests fulfil their many functions in the future. Just as there cannot only be great people, there cannot only be great old trees in a healthy forest fit for the future. The forest cottage is therefore also a symbol of intergenerational sustainable thinking and action."
Markus Kroisleitner, Head of Timber Construction at Strobl Holzbau: "Wood is probably the oldest and most versatile building material in the world and the building material of the 21st century: climate-friendly, renewable, regionally processed, with a high degree of prefabrication, which enables fast construction times, light in weight with high strength. It is ideal for a forest cottage as well as for multi-storey buildings, whether residential or commercial, as well as for renovations and redensification. After decades of use, wooden houses can simply be dismantled and the waste wood reused for furniture, for example. That is sustainable."
Co-operation partner in the Waldhäusl project:
Franz Mayr-Melnhof-Saurau forestry operation (mm-forst.at)
STROBL Bau - Holzbau GmbH | Construction company with quality
NUSSMÜLLER ARCHITEKTEN - Architecture Studio in Graz (nussmueller.at)