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F.L. de Zwart

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A computational framework for urban roundwood stock to supply the loadbearing structure of an architectural design

Master thesis (2026) - F.L. de Zwart, S. Brancart, G. Mirra
The research question this paper answers is: ‘’How can felled urban trees be processed into tailor-made load-bearing architectural elements using computational optimization?’’. This question is relevant because urban trees are currently an under-utilized material. The built environment accounts for up to 40% of the energy demand. Timber structures can have a Global Warming Potential ten times lower then steel structures, when taking the embodied carbon into account. This paper has found that a best-fit heuristic for 3D bin-packing could result in a 30-40% utilization of roundwood timber for lead-bearing elements. Metaheuristics can improve the utilization by several percent. The trees marked for felling in Rotterdam could supply enough wood in half a year to supply for both small scale residential dwellings as well as for large scale commercial buildings. These findings are a prove of concept for a framework that utilizes urban trees into tailor made load bearing elements. ...