Today, the building construction sector in the European Union consumes 40% of primary materials, and the same percentage of primary energy, making it an exhaustive industry responsible for resource depletion. At the same time the Netherlands is in need of more affordable housing. Drastic change is needed to produce the necessary housing in a way that is consistent with planetary limits. Timber as a renewable construction material could be a solution. However, careful consideration of the entire timber system is needed in order to make building with timber not just another way to exploit natural resources. This graduation project proposes a possible solution by building social housing with locally sourced timber in the Netherlands.

This thesis ‘Growing Social Housing’ is part of a joint graduation project with Yael van Mengden (Msc Landscape Architecture). This interdisciplinary project proposes a new system from dynamic production forestry to social housing in the Netherlands.