HiBiWood: Sustainable, High-Performance Building Solutions in Wood

The HiBiWood project promotes environmentally friendly, sustainable, high-quality timber building solutions. In the near future, timber buildings will account for the majority of new construction. In the future, sustainable, high-quality wooden buildings will be designed and constructed from environmentally friendly wood components, but a certain amount of steel and concrete building materials will remain in order to ensure that the building meets structural, fire prevention, moisture absorption, and economic requirements. However, at present, higher education studies for designers and engineers focus mainly on steel and concrete buildings, and sometimes on low-rise wooden buildings. In order to meet the needs of the labor market, it is necessary to teach students new skills in the design, construction, and management of high-performance timber construction.

The HiBiWood project aims to meet the needs of higher education students in the field of sustainable and efficient timber construction through innovative, student-centered learning methods.

Objectives:

1. To develop and deliver a new interdisciplinary module on sustainable and efficient timber building systems that meet the needs of higher education institutions and the labor market.
2. Improve the problem-solving and teamwork skills of students and teachers by promoting innovative thinking, motivation, understanding of interprofessional project outcomes, and project management.
3. To educate all participants (students, teachers, entrepreneurs) in the field of sustainable and efficient timber construction solutions.
4. To ensure open access to project results for representatives of target groups.

Project results:

• A competency framework for training specialists in the field of sustainable timber construction has been developed.
• A bachelor’s degree module, “Sustainable, High-Quality Timber Building Systems” (9 ECTS), has been created, integrating interdisciplinary knowledge.
• An e-learning platform was introduced, ensuring convenient access to training content and blended learning opportunities.
• Good practices from partner countries and companies in the construction sector were collected and summarized.
• Intensive training courses were organized in Finland, attended by at least 18 teachers and instructors who gained knowledge about project-based learning, learning by doing, and blended learning.
• A new module was tested in three training courses in Austria, Poland, and Latvia, attended by 75 bachelor’s students.
• Construction sector associations and companies were involved in the project activities, participating in the development of the module and contributing to the development of competencies in line with labor market needs.
• An international conference was held in Latvia, attended by at least 20 international and 40 local representatives from higher education institutions, educational institutions, and businesses, to present the project results.

Added value of the project:

The project helps to strengthen the training of specialists in sustainable construction, especially wooden buildings, by ensuring the acquisition of innovative, interdisciplinary knowledge and practical skills. It brings together the academic and business sectors, promoting cooperation and creating study programs that meet the real needs of the labor market. The training modules and e-learning platform developed will ensure the long-term availability of results, and the students and teachers involved in the project will become ambassadors of change, able to implement sustainable construction solutions both locally and internationally.