Up and away with wood

Wood is becoming increasingly popular as a building material. Schindler has now developed the first standard solution for lift shafts using the renewable raw material.

Many regard wood as the building material for now. e share for new residential construction in Germany is about 20 percent - and the trend is still upward. It is ecological, binds carbon dioxide and not only creates beautiful rooms, but a good room climate as well. Due to climate change alone, wood construction is becoming increasingly important. On top of this, since even large wood elements can be prefabricated easily in a factory, wooden buildings are more quickly erected than masonry or steel-reinforced buildings.

However, for lift builders, wooden houses present a new challenge: lifts normally require a concrete, masonry or steel shaft. To date, wood has been uncommon here. In the past, Schindler teams have repeatedly designed custom solutions for individual projects for attaching lift components in a wooden shaft. However, up to now a standard solution was missing that could be deployed for different models like the Schindler 3000.

Certified last year

Photo: © Schindler

As part of the school-building offensive, 24 schools are now to be created in Berlin with extension buildings in wood module design and configured to be barrier-free with lifts.

For this purpose, Schindler set up a six-member team with representatives from sales, back office, assembly, the training centre and modernisation and design centre, according to Christian Thomas, head of sales for major and special projects at Schindler Germany in the Berlin area.

The result was an assembly system for lifts based on a standard attachment from wood construction. After corresponding tests in the training centre in Berlin, which documented its suitability for dynamic loads, the system was certified last year.

More individual material

Taking into account the strength classes of different types of wood, it is suitable for almost all wood varieties used in construction. “Of course, the material is more individual than classic concrete or steel shafts. Consequently, we developed a tool to make quick decisions about the best solution,” explained Christian Thomas.

After the order had been issued, the new system was used for the first time in a primary school in summer 2021. “During assembly and acceptance, there were no problems and cooperation with the implementing construction company Kaufmann Bausysteme and the owner of the school, the Berlin Senate, worked very well," revealed the responsible sales employee Jan Rohdenburg. Schindler has already been commissioned for nine more schools. The remaining 14 are to follow by the end of 2024.

Apart from the public building projects, projects are already in planning in which the new standard solution is to be used. For example, this includes a residential high-rise in hybrid wood design. “This is because it’s also possible to rise really high with shaft materials apart from concrete and steel,” according to Schindler.

More information: schindler.de