Basajaun - building a sustainable joint between rural and urban areas through circular and innovative wood construction value chains
European rural areas will boost when their natural resources constitute the basis of innovative and sustainable value chains with a high positive economic impact. In this sense, forests constitute an asset that provide not only ecosystems and biodiversity, but also a valuable and sustainable raw material, “wood”. Wood is consumed by various sectors, including one of the most “raw materials” demanding sector, the construction. The BASAJAUN project is a puzzle composed of 1st and 2nd transformation companies, research organizations, associations and public bodies that are focused on maximizing the forest value through its use in wood construction. Its main goal is to optimize the wood forest resources to enable the construction of a medium sized building (16 dwellings with 4 floors) with the lowest possible forest hectares – that will depends on the tree species and the forest local peculiarities (climate, surface, ..). The whole process will be optimised to maximize the consumption of wood products from the forest (solid wood, fibers, veneers, bark, sawdust, etc.).

For this purpose, a) innovative wood-based construction materials (thermal insulation, composites, varnishes, SIPs) and systems (structure, facades, floors, walls, roof and fixings) will be developed and upscaled, b) two full -scale demo buildings (Finland and France) that use those products will be constructed, c) digitalization of the whole construction value chain (from forest to building) will be done and d) the rural development impact will be studied at regional level. The environmental impact of the products of these value chains will be assessed as well. Besides, to assure a sustainable impact of the project a novel thematic platform to integrate the stakeholders of the wood region with urban areas will be developed.

Besides, BASAJAUN leverages the previous results of successful projects where the innovative materials and systems were designed at laboratory and semi-industrial scale.