The 12th INTER Meeting was an unforgettable event - for the first time the meeting was hosted in Turkey from 24-28 August.
On the historic campus of Yildiz Technical University and amidst the warmth and hospitality of our Turkish colleagues, 66 scientists from 16 countries from four continents came together to exchange ideas and explore new insights to advance standardisation for timber construction.
Many thanks to all participants and to our hosts for the excellent organisation!
Extensive literature research and two years of field research form the basis of construction principles, recommendations and illustrative descriptions for preventive constructional measures in wood preservation. These are intended to sensitise, inspire and contribute to the responsible implementation and expansion of preventive structural timber protection in accordance with DIN 68800-2. The report offers practical guiding details and graphically reduced illustrations derived from positive and negative experiences with timber structures. The aim is to strengthen the discourse, support standardisation processes and establish prevention as a design principle - with the aim of reducing cost-intensive aftercare in the long term.
This research project was commissioned and financed by the Ministerium für Landesentwicklung und Wohnen Baden-Württemberg.
At the end of the 2025 summer semester, 13 architecture and civil engineering students in four interdisciplinary teams presented their structural designs for the PLAY! Indoors - Temporary multi-purpose hall in timber construction. They presented their concepts in a compact final presentation and discussed them with their supervisors and the examiners Prof Dietsch and Prof La Magna. In addition to plans in DIN A0 format, physical models on a scale of 1:200 and a node detail on a scale of 1:1 were created and discussed. The quality of the work was a reflection of the in-depth examination of design, construction and detailing. We would like to thank everyone involved for their commitment and successful collaboration!
We are pleased to announce two new additions to this series:
Book No. 39 - "Timber fasteners: a study on input parameters for the design of timber joints" by Carmen Sandhaas This book presents a detailed analysis of strength parameters of screws and nails, highlighting challenges in standardization of these products due to the wide variety of screw types and properties. Read more: https://lnkd.in/d3qtqjbZ
Book No.40 - "A Contribution to Friction in Timber Connections" by Simon Aurand This publication examines surface modifications of steel and timber members, demonstrating their impact on load-carrying capacities of connections, particularly those with inclined screws. Read more: https://lnkd.in/dX7Xn4UD
We are delighted that Philipp Dietsch gave a keynote speech entitled "Can timber construction experience limits to growth?" at WCTE 2025 in Brisbane. KIT Timber Structures and Building Construction was strongly represented with a delegation of five researchers and a total of eight presentations.
The World Conference on Timber Engineering (WCTE) 2025 took place from 22 to 26 June 2025 in Brisbane, Australia. The conference was hosted by the University of Queensland. WCTE is a scientific dissemination forum for presenting and discussing the latest technical and architectural developments and innovations in timber engineering and construction.
World Conference on Timber Engineering (WCTE 2025) Recap Video
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Congratulations to Sebastian Egner on the successful defence of his dissertation! Under the title "Rotationssteifigkeit von Fachwerkknoten mit geneigt eingebrachten Holzschrauben" (rotational stiffness of truss nodes with inclined screws), Sebastian Egner shows how the stiffness of connections with axially loaded screws in truss girders can be determined experimentally and analytically.
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As part of the IACES local competition, we hosted a fast-paced Design-Build-Test challenge in timber engineering. Student teams had 80 minutes to design and build two double-shear timber connections - one for maximum load-bearing capacity, the other for maximum ductility. Using various tools and timber screws, teams combined technical knowledge with creativity. The final testing took place in our laboratory, offering participants valuable hands-on experience in structural timber design and research.
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We are delighted that four out of six awards of the Studierendenpreis Holzbau BW 2025 went to graduates from our chair. The prize honours the best Bachelor's and Master's theses in timber construction.
We congratulate:
- Anna-Katharina Schmitt
- Johannes Hasselmann
- Jonas Ernst
- Jan Kipper
Pictures of the award ceremony and posters of the award-winning works: https://holz-bw.de/studierendenpreis/
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