Wood’s potential in health buildings

Wood has been experiencing a recent renaissance as construction material mainly due to its environmental assets. However, wood has the reputation of being prone to contamination and difficult to clean, which has limited its use in hospitals, healthcare units and other facilities with high demands towards surface hygiene. This is unfortunate as several studies have shown that wood greatly aids the measured and perceived indoor environment quality (IEQ) and can be utilized to reduce energy use for heating and/or ventilation.

Could cleaning be improved by a surface treatment or coating?

Would this maintain good properties of wood?

What can be learnt about existing examples of wood in hospitals?

Queen Silvia Children’s Hospital in Gothenborg

Using as a case the fictional re-design of the Queen Silvia Children’s Hospital in Gothenborg conceptualised by the project partner White Arkitekter, the WOOD for HEALTH research team will explore the limits and potentials for wood products in health buildings with an emphasis on surface aspects.

Funding

Project WOODforHEALTH is supported under the umbrella of ERA-NET Cofund ForestValue by Ministry of the Environment of Finland, Latvian Council of Science, German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Research Council of Norway and Vinnova Sweden's Innovation Agency. ForestValue has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N° 773324.