Market potentials for timber-concrete composites in Germany's building construction sector

This article presents an explorative study analyzing the market potential for timber-concrete composites (TCC) in the German construction industry. Data from official statistics on building activity in Germany for 2014 and the period from 2010 to 2014 were evaluated in the analysis, and interviews with expert architects and planners were conducted. The goal of the study is to explore the market opportunities of TCC. The experts who were questioned consider TCC as the key to opening the market for types of buildings in which timber construction has had limited application until now (multi-family houses and residential-like/multi-story non-residential buildings). Possible market potentials are calculated with the aid of a scenario which can also be adapted in the context of individual scenarios based on the given data. The study makes it clear that TCC is not only to be evaluated technologically (R + D, standards etc.); market development depends at least as much on soft (social) factors. In part, this concerns the identity of timber construction itself, which must deconstruct the mindsets that have formed over decades in the wood-based sector and are communicated in marketing. At the same time, a co-operation between concrete and timber constructors becomes necessary, which experts call a "clash of cultures.".