The Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam (MRA) is currently working on two pressing issues: A gradual transition towards a circular economy and a pressing housing crisis. This graduation project explores the potential to expand the local Mass timber industry while embedding circular building principles in order to alleviate the pressing housing crisis. Developing an on site pre-fabrication and refurbishing facility for post and beam construction and circular building strategies. Nurturing the local timber material culture and preparing for the future recirculation of Mass timber elements from the Built environment. The project includes designs for the development of a multistorey mass timber mixed use building in the Havenstad project.

This graduation project explores how timber facades can be designed to last longer in a sustainable, environmentally responsible manner. Focusing on European wood species, the research addresses the challenges of using untreated timber in exterior applications without relying on harmful chemical treatments. Through a combination of material studies, environmental analysis, and architectural detailing, the project identifies strategies to enhance durability—including the use of naturally durable species, smart overhang design, and selective cladding systems.

The findings were applied in the architectural design of a residential extension atop an existing low-rise structure—an urban densification method known as optoppen. By reusing existing materials and optimizing new timber components, the design reflects a commitment to circularity and material efficiency. Overhangs vary according to orientation and climate exposure, while demountable cladding elements allow for selective replacement, reducing waste over the building’s lifespan.

This project positions untreated timber as a viable material for contemporary facade design by demonstrating how thoughtful architectural strategies can extend its lifespan. It contributes to the discourse on sustainable material use, climate-adaptive architecture, and circular construction within the context of urban transformation.

As urban areas face increasing densification and a rise in individual living amid the Dutch housing crisis, traditional housing models often fail to support the adaptability needed across changing mobility, care, and changing family strucutres over a lifetime. This research positions timber construction as a strategy for incremental and continuous change in intergenerational living, leveraging its high strength to weight ratio, user approachability, its associations with craftsmanship and self-build culture to empower residents with greater agency over their living spaces. Focusing on systems that allow modification, disassembly, and reuse, the study categorizes adaptation strategies across short-, medium-, and long-term timeframes, each with distinct requirements for materials, components, and construction methods. An assessment matrix then relates timber connection types and biogenic material assemblies to these temporal layers and scales. This research results in a playbook: a practical guide for architects and self-building residents to design for future adaptation opportunities. Based on these findings, this playbook aims to guide architects and self building residents through the strategies used to design the building for future adaptation opportunities, identifying the possibilities for adaptation, and the criteria and methods to achieve them. This playbook will include performance-based criteria and strategies for permissible development, promoting wider use of biogenic materials, with the goal of creating living environments that can evolve over time, and respond accordingly to the needs of residents and the changing urban environment.

From a global perspective, the building industry is one of the significant factors of environmental impact on the planet. Related activities in this industry refer to 40% of total carbon emissions; 28% of this value accounts for building operations, while the remaining 12% represents the manufacturing of new construction materials. Studies have revealed that 90% of construction waste comes from demolition (Ahn et al., 2022). Wood as a construction material is an uprising in the building practice due to its carbon storage capabilities and prefabricated possibilities (Gong, 2021). Prefabricated timber constructions can benefit rural Colombia's social reconstruction with the help of digital fabrication technologies. Likewise, this method could bring better performance of materials and its End of Life (EOL) (Ahn et al., 2022). Nevertheless, research has identified wood-to-wood timber connections as a gap in the academia to tackle better design, manufacture, assembly, and deconstruction (DfMA + D) in the field (Mehra et al., 2021). The following study aims to investigate the application of CNC technologies to fabricate novel and affordable wood joinery connection solutions for the construction of rural housing in Colombia. This research emphasizes the cooperation of the wood material to moisture fluctuation, with the aim of introducing a more sustainable and efficient assembly method.