Uganda's Timber Innovation Centre champions wood and timber construction
Uganda's Timber Innovation Centre champions wood and timber construction
Members of the TIC teams manufacturing components for Uganda's Timber Innovation Centre. Pic by Lightwood.
Africa has emerged as a significant timber-growing market, with the FAO estimating that demand for sawn wood will grow 49% over the next three decades. Uganda's population is expected to double to over 80 million.
Uganda’s Timber Innovation Centre (TIC) is attempting to showcase timber-based construction to meet the needs for infrastructure development and housing for millions of homeless and young people entering the housing market.
In 2018, Lightwood, an initiative of Fairventures Worldwide, a German not-for-profit organisation, established the Mass Timber Construction Project (MTCEA) in Uganda to research its timber value chain and the development and improvement of sustainable timber value chains in the region.
As a result of the project, Fairventures Worldwide and its partners decided to design and build the TIC in Kampala.
TIMBER SOURCING
Uganda's pine was unsuitable for structural construction due to its inconsistent quality and moisture content, making it unstable and unreliable. All the wood was sourced from Busoga Forestry Company (BFC), a subsidiary of Green Resources located in Jinja.
Glue laminated timber (Glulam) beams were manufactured using a mechanical press that could only produce two beams a day. The beams and timber were transported to the workshop for prefabrication.
PREFABRICATION
More than 60% of the elements were prefabricated at the workshop to reduce costs and create consistency through quality control. Furthermore, as the TIC is an exhibition building, prefabrication would allow it to be moved to other locations for displaying.
In the workshop, glulam beams, columns, and roof trusses were cut precisely to ensure a perfect fit during the final assembly.
The walls were constructed of 18mm plywood held in timber frames of 50x100mm sections.
Gypsum boards of 9mm were then screwed onto the interior face for fire and water protection and to create accent walls.
ROOFING AND CEILINGS
For roofing, 50x100mm wooden pieces were used for purlins, to which 0.4mm thick iron sheets with Polynum insulation were screwed. The office section has a tongue and groove wooden ceiling below the trusses. In contrast, the multipurpose section of the building has exposed trusses and beams.
TESTING
Samples of the manufactured beams and timber were taken to Makerere University's School of Forestry to test the physical and mechanical properties of the solid wood, finger-jointed and glulam components. The results of the tests were essential for engineers to understand the capabilities of the wood products in structural applications.
The construction method gave local carpenters a learning experience of timber products, a production line, the durability of engineered wood products, maintenance costs, and a cost comparison with other building materials.
TREATMENT
In an isolated workshop section, the 50x100mm timber connected to the steel foundation was treated with Benzothiazol-2-ylthio)methyl thiocyanate (TCMTB). Three layers of TCMTB were brushed on and allowed to dry for eight hours between coats. The remaining visible timber was treated with linseed oil, including the beams, columns, and the tongue and groove joints for the cladding. Everything was then transported to the site for assembly.
CHALLENGES
The construction project faced multiple challenges, including delayed building and development permits, scarcity of materials, lack of carpenters skilled in wood construction and onsite joinery work and the lack of environmentally friendly timber treatments that offered long-term protection from weathering and biodegradation. The team overcame these issues by looking for substitute materials, placing custom orders, training interested woodworkers, and practising local carpenters.
The rains set in at the beginning of March when roofing was starting, which exposed the roof trusses and interior face of the wall elements. At this point in the assembly phase, the primary floor was covered with a water guard tarp and a moisture-proof tarp was stapled onto the walls.
OPPORTUNITIES
The official opening of the TIC was held in June 2023. Lightwood and Fairventures hope that promoting timber in construction will create and increase demand for locally sourced products to replace the imported flooring, ceiling, roofing, furniture and framing timber and products flooding the markets.
They want to promote sustainable and affordable timber housing in East Africa by strengthening the timber value chain through improved infrastructure, education, research and development. Planned education programmes include skills and capacity building in onsite joinery, wood testing, grading, health and safety, and woodworking tools.
They are also working with tertiary institutions to develop timber construction curricula and research and development of timber drying, wood treatments, products, timber source tracing and forestry management practices.
