With our sights set on sustainable development of society, we’ve launched a new facade concept – bARK Timber Facade System. It is manufactured from raw materials sourced from Swedish certified forests, making it both environmentally friendly and cost effective. It has also motivated us to set a new goal for at least half of all the facades installed by Fasadglass in 2022 to be timber-based.
The system is available in two versions, bARK Stick (stick built facade) and bARK Module (prefab system), both of which are manufactured at our production facility in Hultsfred from raw materials sourced from Swedish certified forests. With bARK Timber Facade System, we can help our customers reduce their total carbon footprint. Timber is a renewable material which is an important factor in the equation, along with the fact that our production facility is located in Sweden, which means shorter transportation distances, less waste and less material handling.
“Typically, a lot of work is done with aluminium in our industry and much of the material comes from major manufacturers at various places in Europe. We are reducing our use of aluminium and transitioning to timber, which is a big change in the industry. It’s a little strange that it hasn’t happened earlier, given that timber is more environmentally friendly and cheaper. The design possibilities are endless as well,” says Erik Stening, Head of Marketing & Sales.
Over the past year, we’ve worked intensively to develop high quality timber systems. The biggest challenges have revolved around certain core qualities of wood, like moisture and fire risk. We’ve overcome those challenges by using various surface treatments and designs that minimize exposure of end pieces. We meet stability requirements by only using glulam. The facade systems that we have developed can easily be adapted to meet specific requirements, which makes the design possibilities endless.
“Besides being environmentally friendly and cost effective, timber facades have many design advantages. You can shape wood in many more ways than what is possible with aluminium and steel. CNC technology opens up all sorts of possibilities when it comes to design and structures. As an architect, it gives much more freedom in your design,” says Erik Stening.
How does the choice of material affect your project’s total carbon footprint? Read more about our systems here and contact us for more information.
It will be exciting to see how facade systems are received and the kinds of creative solutions that designers in our industry come up with.