Vert – the red oak route to a cooler, greener city

For London Design Festival 2024, The American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) presents Vert, a sustainable engineered timber structure constructed to cool cities and increase biodiversity in urban environments.

Designed by leading industrial design practice Diez Office in collaboration with urban greening specialists OMCºC, Vert showcases the potential of two versatile wood products: red oak glulam and thermally modified timber (TMT), while providing a calm and shaded space for visitors to enjoy.

Vert will be on show at Chelsea College of Arts throughout London Design Festival, 14–22 September, and will remain on site until 14 October.

Video Youtube

Campus Sursee celebrates its 50th birthday

Campus Sursee opened its new event hall just in time for its 50th birthday. The roof of the timber event hall is spanned by approx. 29 metre-long beams. The truss nodes were solved using GSA technology for efficient assembly and an almost invisible connection. The proportion of Swiss timber is 92.3% and applies to both the trusses and the box girder elements. 217 m3 of wood is used in the event hall. Wood that comes from Switzerland and was also processed here.

>> Report Pro Holz 3/2024 | >> Reference

Pembroke College is nominated for the Wood Awards 2024

We’re delighted to share that the 1st phase redevelopment of Pembroke College, Cambridge has been shortlisted at this year’s Wood Awards.

Pembroke College was founded in 1347 and this project, which includes a new College court and the restoration of a number of historic buildings, is the College’s most significant development since the fourteenth century.

The n’H team was responsible for consulting, detailed structural engineering and delivery in glulam oak with GSA connections, including logistics. The oak beams and columns are exposed throughout and, alongside handmade brickwork, are a celebration of craftsmanship which continues the architecturally rich history of this inner city University Campus.

Voting by the public – Rigiaa Bridge wins in the timber construction category

The award ceremony for the public’s favourite in timber construction took place on 19 September 2024: the Rigiaa Bridge.

A unique wooden bridge was built on the Rigi, reduced to the essentials. The Rigiaa Bridge is a further development of the neighbouring Fruttli Bridge, which was built in 2020 and won an innovation award in the USA in 2023 as the world’s first heavy-duty bridge in timber-UHPC composite construction.
It shows that timber can also compete with conventional constructions for road bridges – with major advantages in terms of construction time, durability and sustainability.

It’s great that we were able to be part of this bridge. Click here for the winners’ overview.

Vert pavilion at London Design Festival

Design studio Diez Office and urban greening specialists OMCC have collaborated with the American Hardwood Export Council to create a “greening machine” exhibited during London Design Festival.

Displayed within the courtyard at Chelsea College of Arts, the Vert pavilion features a timber structure traversed by greenery and was designed to address rising temperatures and dwindling biodiversity within cities.

>> More info (Dezeen) | >> Read the article of Tectonia (spanish)

Successful completion of the timber beam test series in the FHNW construction laboratory

Since January 2024, four timber beams with a length of 25 metres have been in the FHNW construction laboratory, where they were tested for their load-bearing capacity. The large-scale test series, carried out on behalf of the City of Zurich for the planned Oerlikon sports centre, has now been successfully completed. The n’H team was able to manufacture and supply the timber beams. We were also able to work out the transition from timber to concrete with the FHNW and the engineering firm Schnetzer Puskas Ingenieure AG – a successful system thanks to GSA technology.

Bridge festival in Saland

In Dillhaus, Saland, the new and sustainable timber truss bridge is being built over the Töss.

The bridge will be lifted into place on Saturday, 7 September 2024 at 11.00 am. This will be followed by an opening speech.

Everyone is invited. > Flyer Bridge festival

Holzbaukultur Podcasts

Holzbaukultur organises podcasts on various topics in the timber industry. Thomas Strahm, our Head of Engineering, talks about the use of hardwood in timber construction, using the Pilatus Flugzeugwerke AG structural hangar in Stans as an example. Together with the students of the Bern University of Applied Sciences BFH, an exciting podcast has been created – it’s well worth a listen: Podcasts (holzbaukultur.ch)

Landenberghaus, Greifensee

The new replacement building for the cultural centre with a hall, club rooms and a bistro by the lake offers a platform for events of all kinds. The interplay of the historic
stone walls with the wooden interior creates a unique atmosphere in the ballroom, which also has excellent room acoustics.

Find out more here. Source: Lignum Holzbulletin 150/2024 Cultural buildings

VERBINDÄ was a complete success / Anniversary review

WOW, we are overwhelmed!

We welcomed more than 1,500 guests to our anniversary celebration in Lungern under the motto VERBINDÄ…. Various food stands, a comedy trio, painting wooden cows, a nostalgia corner and much more were on the program.

On Friday, we toasted with our customers and suppliers and looked back on the last 40 years. On the following Saturday, we opened our doors to relatives and n’H fans – the interest was great and our joy even greater!

Thank you very much for coming, for the great conversations, for the gifts and much more – you made the event as overwhelming as we could have imagined and hoped for.