Wood that doesn't burn: how CLT structures are changing the construction market in Ukraine

The future will be built from wood

"Concrete monsters" and "glass towers": the favorite heroes of architectural debates are giving way to a new topic - the discussion of "plywood giants". CLT (Cross-Laminated Timber) and Glulam (Glued Laminated Timber) are engineering products that have transformed wood from an "artisanal" material into a technological, large-scale component of modern architecture. The essence of the CLT invention is simple but ingenious: wooden boards are laid in layers perpendicular to each other, glued under pressure, forming extremely strong panels that can withstand multi-storey loads. Similar principles are used in the Glulam technology, where wooden elements are assembled into supporting beams, columns and large-sized panels.

The first large-scale CLT buildings appeared in Austria and Germany, and later the technology spread to Scandinavia, Canada and Japan. Today, the world's largest architectural firms compete in creating wooden skyscrapers. The Norwegian Mjøstårnet (18 floors) and the American Ascent Tower (25 floors) in Milwaukee are two of the most striking high-rise structures made of glued laminated timber.

Help PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA

---

Mjøstårnet in Brumunddal near Lake Myosa was completed in March 2019. Height 85,4 m, 18 floors. The base is glued laminated timber and CLT panels from local forests. The complex combines offices, a 72-room hotel, a restaurant and residential apartments. The minimal use of steel ensures fire resistance, and the wood actively absorbs CO₂.

Ascent Tower in Milwaukee was put into operation in August 2022. Height 86,6 m, 25 floors, 259 apartments. This is a hybrid building: concrete base + CLT on the upper floors. Assembly time - two years. The weight of the structure is 30% lower than concrete analogues, which increases earthquake resistance and saves resources.

---

Both projects have confirmed in practice the declared advantages of CLT: fast modular assembly, environmental friendliness, and structural reliability.

International expert on wooden structures Andriy Bidakov emphasizes that right now there is a turning point in rethinking the role of wood - and not only as a natural, but also as an engineering material.

Andriy Bidakov: "The slogan that the future will be built of wood is becoming increasingly clear, and the advantages of this building material are being rethought. Today, it is used in structures as a technological product in the form of CLT panels, tongue-and-groove timber or LVL (Laminated Veneer Lumber), glued laminated timber. Processing of raw materials removes natural defects, and modern chemistry and pressing technologies create a product whose cross-section in the frame of buildings is sometimes smaller than that of reinforced concrete elements, but no less durable. Among the striking cases demonstrating the power of wood are not only built high-rise buildings, but also 5-story parking lots and public facilities.

However, the adaptation and transfer of technologies to Ukraine require the involvement of highly qualified specialists, their training, and a change in the level of engineering culture, including the culture of design, production, installation, and use of the building."

CLT panels, like other innovative materials, have passed the peak of euphoric popularity, when they were used everywhere without any reason, the expert clarifies. Now is the time for awareness. So far, in Ukraine, CLT is used mainly in cottage construction - buildings up to three floors, where the panels help to implement complex volumetric and planning solutions. Wall panels carry vertical loads, act as diaphragms and connecting blocks, providing spatial rigidity and redistribution of forces in the frame. This is confirmed by Vitaly Bessmertny, a representative of the company "REZULT UKRAINE", a Ukrainian manufacturer of CLT.

Vitaly Bessmertny: "The demand for CLT panels in Ukraine is gradually but steadily growing. If a few years ago this technology was perceived as experimental, today we already have real projects in residential, public and defense construction. Architects, developers and customers are increasingly paying attention to this material due to its advantages: high accuracy, speed of installation, stable geometric indicators, environmental friendliness and excellent thermal insulation properties.
It is worth noting the growing interest in CLT in the field of defense and temporary structures - as a material that allows you to quickly create strong, lightweight and maintainable structures. The company "REZULT UKRAINE" implements both pilot and serial projects based on its own Ukrainian production of CLT panels, which fully meet the requirements of the European standard EN 16351. Our panels are made of high-quality pine wood with controlled humidity, on modern automated equipment, using certified PUR (polyurethane glue) adhesive systems.

Ukrainians and CLT: Pride and Prejudice

The architectural landscape is changing slowly and cautiously. In public opinion, wooden construction is associated mainly with small architectural forms - benches, fences, domes and village huts somewhere on the slopes of the Carpathians. Andriy Bidakov believes that the turning point is coming right now. A striking example is the collaboration of specialists in the design of wooden structures with the development company Vlasne Misto and personally with the CEO - Yaroslav Korniachenko. The coincidence of views on the prospects of CLT panels and glued timber in the frames of buildings for various purposes led to a partnership that has lasted for more than 5 years.

“Our goal is to shape the market. Building one or two residential buildings as showrooms is more of a task for CLT manufacturers, who need to demonstrate their product and find buyers. For us, CLT and glued timber are about speed of construction, environmental friendliness and energy efficiency. We look at wooden structures as part of an eco-strategy – both in terms of reducing the amount of CO₂ emitted and in terms of saving energy costs during operation,” he explains. Yaroslav Korniachenko. — We spent a lot of time researching wooden construction, in particular CLT, on creating the right connections, connectors, and installation methods. We have several ready-made standard solutions. The most popular are individual houses: type 4 by Anatoly Nemtsov and Volodymyr Nepyvody, and type 5 by Viktor Kudin. Back in 2021, we planned to build them. Then we started cooperation with the Ukrainian CLT manufacturer and, to be honest, even with an experienced designer, Doctor of Technical Sciences Andriy Bidakov, on our team, we did not fully understand all the technical characteristics of this material.

CLT panels, like other innovative materials, have passed the peak of euphoric popularity, when they were used everywhere without any practicality. Now is the time for awareness

Wooden construction is now developing rapidly even in Europe - it is moving into the Eurocode format. We realized this only after several years of designing. So, in short, the reason why we have not yet implemented a single house from CLT is that we decided to delve deeper: to understand the material, the market reaction, the perception of society. In Ukraine, wooden houses are perceived quite stereotypically. People associate them either with Western Ukrainian villages or with Polesie settlements, where wooden architecture has a long tradition. And also with the history of "honki", when everyone built Finnish cottages en masse. And everyone remembers: it cracks, it shoots, pests start. This is a primitive idea, but it lives on.

Previously, we limited ourselves, because we looked at CLT only as a wall panel or a ceiling panel. Now we see that even a monolithic frame can be rethought in wood - replace a column or pylon with a glued beam or beam 200 × 600 or 200 × 800 mm, which performs the same function. And when you realize this, you no longer have any limits. A house designed for a monolith can be quite easily adapted for wood. Not in a week, of course, but in a month it is quite possible to make a complete recalculation - and send it to production. And then everything is assembled quickly on the site - on ready-made connectors.

Why architects like CLT panels

European awareness of minimizing the carbon footprint, recycling and reuse of structural elements and renewable eco-materials is becoming a strong argument for Ukrainian architects to start designing with glued laminated timber. And in practice, many other advantages of this method are already apparent.

Dmytro Dudchenko, chief architect of YOD Group: “Wood is the most favorite material in our studio, so we use it everywhere: it is environmentally friendly, beautiful and relatively inexpensive. In particular, in architecture, whenever possible, we use wood not only as a cladding element, but also in the structure. In addition to being environmentally friendly, a glued wooden structure does not require cladding and does not create cold bridges. This significantly saves money on finishing and makes the structure thinner, more elegant and cleaner. The smell of wood inside adds a feeling of coziness to the interior. That is, the interior of a building made of wooden beams and CLT can be ready without any additional materials on the walls and ceiling, except for the floor, of course. Our last project where we used glued beams was the Seven Lakes recreation complex, where we made the pergola near the summer pools from glued beams.

Glulam is much stronger and more practical than solid wood. It opens up completely new possibilities - to build wide-span, cantilever, high structures of any shape and complexity. Large structures, such as high-rise buildings or stadiums, are increasingly appearing, the supporting structures of which are made of glued timber. This is what inspires and motivates us to implement something similar in Ukraine. As for possible future competition with concrete, of course, glued timber will be increasingly used as an alternative in small and medium-scale buildings, as well as as a wonderful hybrid combination with reinforced concrete.

Anatoly Nemtsov, head of LAWA Architects: “The global trend is to build as much as possible from wood. This follows from the documents signed at climate summits to reduce carbon emissions, as well as the carbon footprint in general. In France, for example, from 2030 all public buildings must consist of at least 50% renewable or natural materials. Wood has become a key material in the construction of the Olympic Village, which is where this initiative came from.

For architects, designers, sculptors, urban planners, artists, carpenters, the development of a quality environment with the predominant use of wood will mean new places for workshops, meetings, and life. Namely, new or revitalized industrial zones, a compact center, and a near-center city. Imagine an old foundry from the late 19th century or an old saltworks, inside which warm yellow blocks of wood were inscribed, all this black metal, barn oak, and beams made of glued timber... It's about the intertwining of history, culture, tradition, and technology. So why shouldn't the mass construction of modern architecture using wood and natural renewable materials become a new tradition of Ukraine's future?

Why developers and engineers like CLT panels

After decades of dominance of monolithic concrete, developers are also beginning to rethink wood not as a "second-rate" material, but as a technological alternative. Ukrainian developers already see not only environmental but also economic potential in CLT.

Yaroslav Korniachenko: "The monolithic frame, which seems to be the norm, appeared in mass housing construction only in the 2000s. In the 90s there were only the first attempts. And wood is not only about ecology. It is also about vision and economics.

To compare: monolithic reinforced concrete is calculated by cubic meter. Let's say we have a wall 200 millimeters thick - in a cube it is about five square meters. Then we add the cost of concrete, pouring work, installation and dismantling of formwork, reinforcement, vibration, hardening time. And these are weeks of downtime - from 7 to 20 days, until the monolith sets. If you want to get a perfect facade surface, you need fine-grained crushed stone, clean formwork, a perfect concrete formula. It is almost impossible to achieve this on a real site. A concrete pump, crane, formwork - this is complex mechanization and high costs.

Now compare it with CLT: the panels were brought, installed — and that's it. A minimum of operations, cleanly, quickly, accurately. And another important point — the visual range. Even if the wood is damaged somewhere, it is easy to restore it: sand it, paint it — and it's like new again. You can't do that with concrete: either plaster or problems. And it's not just about technology, but also about the feeling of space. We all remember the "Euro-renovations" with false beams — then people intuitively wanted warmth, comfort, even in apartments. So it's simple: a wooden house is faster, warmer, cozier. And what is important — better quality. Because the sound insulation of glued wood is much better than that of a monolith.

From an engineering point of view, CLT technology benefits not only from the speed of installation, but also from its structural flexibility – particularly in seismic zones and during the renovation of existing buildings.

Andriy Bidakov: "Wooden CLT panels for load-bearing structures provide a unique opportunity to speed up the construction of a building and, accordingly, reduce the cost due to the absence of finishing work, because the material can immediately be part of the interior. The large format of the panels also reduces the number of fasteners for the construction of the frame. Due to their low weight compared to metal and reinforced concrete, simple and cheap lifting mechanisms are sufficient. The cost of cranes and other equipment usually makes up a significant part of the estimate. CLT panels and glued timber elements are used for unforeseen superstructures and extensions when it is impossible to significantly overload the foundations.

CLT panels are particularly suitable for building frames located in seismically active zones due to the low weight of wood, which is 6 times less than reinforced concrete. The effectiveness and reliability of CLT panels was confirmed by field tests of a 7-story building in a special laboratory funded by the governments of Italy and Japan back in 2009. From my own design experience: for buildings up to three floors, seismicity does not affect or is not a factor that determines the calculated values ​​of forces for selecting the cross-section of a structural element.

Myths and real problems

Any innovation is always perceived with caution at first. And not only by distrustful customers, but also by professional builders, who perceive wooden construction more as an experiment than as a full-fledged alternative to concrete and steel.

The chief architect of YOD Group, Dmytro Dudchenko, speaks frankly about the main barriers: "Building large buildings in wood in Ukraine is probably one of the biggest challenges, because the standards are old Soviet ones, which, in fact, classify wood as a material with low fire resistance, and accordingly, with a lot of restrictions; there are very few high-quality specialists who know how to work with glued timber, namely designers; the mentality of customers still holds the image of wood as something cheap, short-lived and fire-hazardous. Despite this, we still tirelessly try to convey to customers the importance of keeping our focus on the future and following world-class examples, where wood has long been recognized as the most environmentally friendly, safe and extremely aesthetic material."

"Wooden structures create conditions under which the risk of damage or consequences is minimal, because the wood will burn for a long time, sufficient for evacuation, and not collapse," — Andriy Bidakov

One of the most common prejudices is the fear of fire. Andriy Bidakov explains why modern glued materials are not inferior to metal or concrete even in this aspect:

"The basic advantage of glued laminated timber in fire conditions, unlike metal and reinforced concrete, is that wood has a certain rate of slow charring, and metal and reinforced concrete lose their strength and resistance from heating to a critical temperature. As a result, structures begin to collapse from heating. The fire resistance class of a building, according to the State Building Standards, is associated with a direct requirement for the period during which structures must remain stable (30, 45, 60 or 120 minutes).

Protection methods for metal or reinforced concrete consist in the use of special coatings, plasters or other protective layers that will slow down the heating of the metal or reinforcement in reinforced concrete. For wooden structures, protective methods can also be used in the form of fastening plasterboard sheets around the perimeter of the structural elements, although a direct increase in thickness by the calculated value is also an effective means.

Wooden structures, on the contrary, create conditions under which the risk of damage or consequences is minimal, because the wood will burn for a long time, sufficient for evacuation, and will not collapse after burning for 3–5 or even 8 hours, depending on the load level of the structure and the size of its cross-section.

Another common myth is that wood is afraid of water and is not resistant to moisture. Anatoly Nemtsov, head of the LAWA Architects studio, emphasizes that it all depends on competent design and proper use of the material:

"Materials in architecture have their place and time, there are best practices for applying each of them. For me personally, wood occupies the highest place in the hierarchy of priorities and gets three "yeses": architectural elements made on its basis are strong, warm and beautiful, what more do you need?

Of course, it has its place, for example, I would not pour a slope of earth under a wooden facade, in this case concrete works best. Metal is a companion to wood in terms of stabilizing structures, nodal connections, supporting elements. There is no single answer here that can limit us to any type of material, we try to work with everyone in an environment appropriate for them.

Wet processes are minimized on the construction site, the workplace is clean, and quick installation is possible at any time of the year. All elements are manufactured at the factory, so they are accurate to the millimeter, you can order windows right away without having ready-made holes, and they will be installed exactly. And the best thing is that the panels have holes for communications, they are a final product, ready to use, they do not need to be covered with plaster or other materials, and if you make a dynamic floor based on gypsum fiber sheets, there will be no wet work at all, and the renovation can be completed in an extremely short time, and the housing will have a perfect appearance.

Anatoliy gives examples of problems that can be encountered in practice and ways to solve them: "We had an example of a single-family house, which was made of CLT, as well as carports, which were initially designed from reinforced concrete. But later we realized: the problem was not in the console, but in the large weight of the covering. We switched to a metal frame with panels inside - and all the issues were resolved. The canopy became light, elegant in details, it was installed on a stone column.

Wood is a warm, flexible material that adds energy efficiency to buildings. Yes, it is inferior to concrete in terms of sound insulation, but modern solutions - damping gaskets, multilayer panels - have long since eliminated this difference. And the main cause of acoustic discomfort, oddly enough, is not wood. In most cases, noise is transmitted through improperly designed ventilation, not through the ceiling.

More expensive or cheaper?

As the CEO of Vlasne Misto reminds us, everything that requires manual labor on a construction site is inevitably increasing in price today. The shortage of skilled workers has become one of the key cost factors worldwide. That is why bricklaying has long been abandoned in most European countries: put up the formwork, pour concrete, and that's it. Masons have simply become too expensive.

Hence the conclusion: professionally designed prefab systems (i.e. prefabricated structures manufactured at the factory) can be cheaper, especially when considering the speed of installation and lower risks at the implementation stage. As Korniachenko notes, modern prefab has nothing in common with the Soviet "panels" that we remember from the 60s. Today, these are complex engineering systems with quality control, combining various materials - from a monolithic core of rigidity to glued wooden elements. Wood, especially glued, is stronger and less brittle. If concrete simply cracks and crumbles during destruction, then wood retains its integrity.

Professionally designed, factory-built, prefabricated glued laminated timber structures can be cheaper, especially when considering the speed of installation.

Yaroslav Korniachenko adds a practical aspect: for Ukraine, importing ready-made modular houses is an uneconomical option. The cost of logistics and installation makes such solutions more expensive than a classic monolithic house. There have already been attempts to bring ready-made modules from Europe, and they only proved that a great technological idea can lose its meaning if it is not adapted to the local market and production.

Yaroslav Korniachenko: “In Europe, a quality monolithic house costs 5–5,5 thousand euros per square meter. I have been to Bratislava, Oslo — the level is the same there. Yes, salaries are higher there, but Ukrainians live no worse, we are just not used to saving, we repeat someone else's picture, wasting money on foreign trends. But at the same time, our houses can look more expensive with lower prices for materials and construction processes, if our own technologies and materials are used. Here, Scandinavian partners show a modular house for 2500 euros per meter. And I answer them: we can make a monolithic house for 1600 and renovation for another 600. And it will still be cheaper. Yes, prefab is faster, but these are two different types of housing for almost the same price. Monolith for Ukrainians is a familiar format, while modular houses remain unusual, and the cost of logistics makes them even less attractive. Delivery from Scandinavia alone adds 300–350 euros per square meter. Why, if you can produce here?

Provided that the wood is Ukrainian-made, it will definitely be more economical. Installation and welding of metal structures in our country cost from one and a half to two and a half times more than the metal itself. If a ton of metal is 40 thousand hryvnias, then the work is at least another 80 thousand. And this is without equipment. In addition, metal requires priming, painting, insulation, and wood means no cold spots, no excessive insulation. Look at modern wooden bridges with a span of 80 meters - they are assembled with jewelry precision. We often cast a monolith and still somewhere do not get the size. So the manufacturability of CLT is not inferior to concrete or metal, and in some places even surpasses them.

Andriy Bidakov: "The investor sees the possibility of erecting a frame within three to four days, which is achieved not only by preparing wooden structures in the workshop as a prefab unit, but also due to a correctly selected static scheme and simple reliable nodes, which can simultaneously be non-revisable. A correctly and accurately planned assembly procedure also significantly reduces the number of auxiliary assembly elements (struts and supports), which clearly reduces the cost per square meter.

Unfortunately, comparisons of wooden or reinforced concrete frames are very often not objective, and potential investors refuse wooden frames due to the short-sightedness of advisors who calculate the cost of a frame element without taking into account the complex situation: manufacturing, construction and risks. Moreover, the possibility of reusing a wooden frame or reselling it element by element increases liquidity compared to monolithic reinforced concrete.

"A raw material economy is a path to nowhere. If we need a decent future, we must think in terms of products, finished goods, or services," — Anatoly Nemtsov

Anatoly Nemtsov believes that the development of the Ukrainian market and construction from glued laminated timber will bring additional benefits in the long term:

"It's the same story with Christmas trees for the New Year, it stimulates business to grow trees for sale. When there is a global demand for high-quality wood in large quantities (and we understand that the available resources will not be enough to cover the entire need), this will mean a shortage of goods on the market. However, this also means potential opportunities for business - to close this shortage. And this can only be done by planting large areas with trees with the introduction of selective logging to maintain the forest in a healthy state. This is possible only when there is a responsibility of business and an interest in developing it, and not parasitizing on available resources.

In any case, sooner or later the question will arise who will pay for it if we do not rely on state funding or international partners. But they will also want to benefit, and that will be raw materials. The raw material economy is a path to nowhere, a project for several years with no future. If we need a decent future, then we must think in terms of categories of products, finished products or services, and the state can only help in this legislatively and by ensuring fair competition in the market without exceptions.

Cultural stereotypes

Yaroslav Korniachenko considers cultural stereotypes to be one of the most serious obstacles to the development of the CLT market. New technologies do not sell without adaptation, he explains.

Yaroslav Korniachenko: "Everyone wants to help Ukraine rebuild quickly, but few people understand that their technologies are alien to our culture. Even if some European fund finances construction and says: "Here are modules from Norway or Finland - put them in," this does not mean that a person will want to live there.

Recently, I saw such a modular house brought from Europe. And I told my colleagues frankly: such a house can only be given as a gift, but not sold. People who receive housing for free are not too picky, but if we are talking about permanent residence, the format must correspond to our mentality. That is why in our negotiations with European partners we emphasize: we need to work step by step, with the end consumer. Wooden architecture should not be “alternative” — it should be perceived as naturally as a monolithic frame.

For example, Finnish partners offered us to build 400 thousand square meters of housing in Ukraine — with their financing and technology. It was attractive as a marketing move — “here is our partner, here is the scale”. But we refused. We deliberately said: “Let’s start with one block — 100–150 apartments. We will build, demonstrate the advantages: speed, cleanliness on the site, quality of the result. People should see that this is not an experiment, but a clear technology.”

 

According to the CEO of Vlasne Misto, in order to convince the consumer that CLT is not a thing of the past century, but an advanced technology, it is necessary to satisfy the priority requirements of customers in practice:

1. construction speed. People don't want to wait for years. This is an absolute plus of wooden technologies;
2. reliability and safety. In the current conditions, this is a decisive factor. And wood has an advantage here: glued laminated timber, for example, is more fire-resistant and durable than many traditional materials, although this has to be explained to each client individually;
3. visual series. People crave natural materials. Even in apartments, everyone is adding wooden elements — they want a feeling of naturalness, warmth, and comfort.

Yaroslav Korniachenko: "We see a growing demand for commercial buildings made of wood. This is another way to shape the market: to create not just housing, but high-quality public and business spaces. If we show people good examples, if architects and developers, together with marketing, convey that this is not an experiment, but a technology capable of covering spans of 40 meters without any support, then everything will fall into place."

The problem of personnel and education is one of the main reasons why CLT technologies in Ukraine still remain niche

DBN and Eurocode

In addition to mental barriers, the market is also held back by the imperfection of the legislative framework. Outdated Ukrainian regulations that do not allow building more than two floors of wood and require a reinforced concrete core are a serious obstacle to the progress of construction with glued laminated timber.

Vitaliy Bessmertny, a representative of the company "REZULT UKRAINE", comments on the situation as follows: "The main barrier is the regulatory vacuum. In the current Ukrainian standards (in particular, DBN V.2.6-161:2017 "Wooden structures"), the concept of CLT panels is actually absent. The document describes traditional massive and glued elements, but does not provide a methodology for calculating multilayer cross-laminated panels.
Because of this, ordinary designers do not have official algorithms for determining the load-bearing capacity of walls, floors or roofs made of CLT. The good news: the specialists of the company “Main Moment” have international design practice - the Munich school using the requirements Eurocodein, or rather — Eurocodein 5 (EN 1995). Meanwhile, the expertise in Ukraine does not have the necessary competence to accept calculations performed according to the Eurocode without Ukrainian adaptation.

The second significant factor is the height restriction. According to DBN V.1.1-7:2016 “Fire Safety”, buildings with wooden structures usually belong to the III–IV degree of fire resistance of the structure, and therefore are limited to two or three floors. But there is also good news: we already have a solution, and soon buildings with more than 3, 7 and 9 floors will begin to appear in Ukraine. In Europe, thanks to scientific tests and clear classifications, CLT and Glulam structures have REI certification of 90–120 minutes, which allows the construction of buildings with 8–12 floors, and in Norway or Canada - even up to 20 floors.

In addition, there are issues of durability and moisture protection.

Another important issue is the certification of materials and adhesive systems. Most modern systems (e.g. PUR, polyurethane adhesive, or MUF, melamine urea formaldehyde adhesive, used in CLT) have European CE certificates, but do not have Ukrainian technical certificates. This makes legal use difficult even for domestic manufacturers.

But we, as the flagship of the woodworking industry, have all the certificates for the Ukrainian market, and are also the only ones in Ukraine who have a full package of documents for the European market, which makes it possible to export products produced in Ukraine.

In the EU, the development of CLT and Glulam is supported comprehensively:

• a flexible European Technical Assessment (ETA) system is in place, allowing new materials to be introduced without changes to the code;
• The state stimulates green construction, in particular through tax breaks and grant programs.

Andriy Bidakov, who is working on updating the Ukrainian DBN to harmonize with the Eurocode, says that the vision of the modern environment required a responsible approach to reuse, recycling, and carbon footprint and prompted new engineering solutions and constant consultations with leading world experts who participated in two Eastern European conferences on wooden structures (in 2018 in Kharkiv and in 2025 in Kyiv).

Andriy Bidakov: "Introducing wooden structures into construction requires comprehensive work with a bunch of regulatory documents, because, in addition to the DBN on issues related to calculating strength, deformability, fire resistance, reliability, and the like, there is also the DBN of an architectural direction for the development of certain types of buildings, including schools, hospitals, kindergartens, airport terminals, etc., which do not contain any instructions at all regarding the fact that, for example, stairs or an elevator shaft can be made of wood. And who will accept this or that "indentation" as a regulatory requirement is unknown. That is, the authors of the norms of the past period unfairly did not consider wood at all as a material for load-bearing structures, and without appropriate changes, it is difficult for our country to claim progressiveness and modernity.

Yaroslav Korniachenko: "Today we are truly ready to build housing from wood. We are ready not only technically, but also mentally"

Participation in the work of a group of European experts involved in the development of Eurocode 5 for wooden structures allows us to be a little ahead and understand new approaches to the production and design of wooden structures, which we plan to implement in the Vlasne Misto project. The technological leap in equipment for the production of wooden structures allows us to manufacture frame parts without using drawings, but using a 3D model, with an accuracy of 0,5–1 mm, with appropriate marking for subsequent assembly by professional trained specialists with appropriate qualifications. By the way, the latter is a big problem, because there are almost no trained assembly teams, which leads to the creation of brutally simple assemblies to minimize errors in assembly.

The problem of personnel and education is one of the main reasons why CLT technologies in Ukraine still remain niche. In most specialized universities, the discipline "Wooden Structures" is taught for only one semester and is often perceived as optional. In contrast, in European universities, this direction has a full-fledged program with laboratory tests, which is conducted by practicing engineers. The technical education system in Ukraine remains too inertial: there is no environment that stimulates research, and teachers rarely update their approaches. Despite this, it is the enthusiasm of individual specialists that allows us to support the development of this direction. Without systemic changes in higher education, the regulatory framework, and retraining of specialists, the transfer of European technologies will continue to occur without deep integration into the Ukrainian context.

"Without the state, nowhere"

Yaroslav Korniachenko emphasizes: the state should form an environmental policy and a strategy for the reuse of materials, thinking about the return of millions of Ukrainians, who will become "expats" with new thinking and user experience in modern architecture. This will stimulate the market, where demand will create benefits for everyone. Ukraine is a "blue ocean" for woodworking.

Yaroslav Korniachenko: "Now we are a huge raw material country. But companies are emerging that are starting to produce wood glue, CLT, SLT or new panel formats - DLT (Dowel Laminated Timber), PRX (Plywood Roof Panels). All this can bring Ukraine to a new level - both in terms of exports and expertise. Because we are able to export not raw materials, but a finished product. And use our own wood for the domestic market, and not waste resources on imports and logistics.

The main attraction of Ukraine is that everything you need for this is already nearby. Our ancestors have been building from wood for centuries. Our specialists have always been talented, and today, when we show the Norwegians our projects from glued timber, they are sincerely surprised. So we need to form a domestic market for our own, and not just for someone else's product. Build from wood where it is available: in the Carpathians, in Polesie, in the Kyiv region. This is natural. And such houses stand for hundreds of years, if they are made correctly.

The state, unfortunately, does not stimulate the development of such industries, because the state is the same people as consumers or producers. The administrative apparatus often consists of either those who do not have practical experience, or of business representatives who promote their own interests through legislation. European companies with great enthusiasm offer assistance in the reconstruction of Ukraine - but, of course, with the intention of making money. They lobby for changes in laws to simplify the entry of their technologies into our market. And here the main problem is the lack of a live dialogue between architects, designers and legislators.

If this contact is not made, we risk receiving regulations written under foreign standards. And Ukrainians today, in my opinion, are some of the most adaptable specialists in Europe. And we can create our own standards, no worse, and often better. If we don’t do this in Ukraine, we will again lose some of the specialists and technologies: people will simply be “snatched” by Europeans, and they will implement this knowledge somewhere abroad.”

According to Yaroslav Korniachenko, the state should be interested in at least two directions of development of wooden construction. The first is creation of the internal market and stimulation of export of finished products, which fills the budget and promotes economic growth. The second is analysis and adaptation of European standards: careful study of Eurocode for wooden structures in combination with open communication with engineers and architects. Correctly posed questions, as Korniachenko notes, form a clear vision of needs and expert environment.

When European partners propose to amend the legislation, Ukraine should be ready for constructive cooperation: to provide an expert group and a supervisory board for joint work. The country is open to importing equipment, training specialists and exchanging experience, but on condition of localizing production. This allows avoiding logistics costs, and most partners are already ready for the “produce in Ukraine — export to Europe” model.

"We have come a long way in five years, and now I can say with confidence: today we are truly ready to build housing from wood. We are ready not only technically, but also mentally," says the CEO of Vlasne Misto. He means not only his own company and business partners - this conclusion is true for Ukraine as a whole.