102 wooden houses in Almeerse Kreekvelden

In De Kreekvelden, a district in the Oosterwold development area between Almere and Zeewolde, Koopmans Bouwgroep is building 102 free-sector rental homes with a very low environmental impact on behalf of De Alliantie housing corporation. The basis of the good environmental performance of the homes is the wooden support structure and wooden cladding. Producer of these homes is geWOONhout. At the company's factory, the homes were produced as ready-to-use modules and all have now been installed on the construction site.

The Kreekvelden is designed as a future-proof community where green and energy-efficient living come together. In the design, the original creek is made visible again and wadis provide natural drainage of rainwater. The two-story homes are designed for small households. Thanks to solar panels and an individual air source heat pump, the homes achieve energy label A+++.

The industrially manufactured homes at De Kreekvelden come from geWOONhout's factory. The homes are delivered to the construction site as ready-made modules, complete with installations, kitchen, toilet and bathroom. Bram Bevers of geWOONhout explains.

How much work is it to develop a concept and how useful is it?
“We started developing our wood construction concept about 5 years ago. The concept falls into serial housing construction and is aimed at housing corporations, real estate investors and property developers who want to build ground-level row houses or apartments. Developing a concept requires significant investment. It took a lot of time, energy and thought. We started from a concept of a detached wooden house. But when you connect homes together and stack them on top of each other, you run into many structural engineering and building physics challenges. Each time you have to try things out, test (think especially about fire and noise), adjust and improve. But after 2.5 years we were able to start production. We did that in a new assembly plant in Wehl that we built specifically for that purpose. In the factory, the modules are made that allow us to offer standardized housing concepts. Ground-level homes are offered up to 3 floors and residential buildings up to 5 floors.”

Why do you use LVL wood?
“We specifically chose 'laminated veneer lumber' because LVL is a very strong construction material and because it can be milled accurately and precisely. LVL consists of thin layers of wood peeled from a tree, so to speak, which are then glued and made into beams and boards. In the beams and boards we can insert special stability joints. This allows us to work in a column structure, thus saving on the use of wood. Compared to cross laminated timber construction, which uses solid structural plates, with LVL we achieve the same stability but using much less wood. Another reason for using LVL is that all joints are screwable. For the Creek Fields, the Loosenability Index was calculated at 81% with an overall BCI score of 62%.”

What are the experiences of the Kreekvelden? What areas for improvement are there and what will go with them to a follow-up project?
“We have already gained the necessary experience from other projects and therefore the production process went off without any significant issues. However, we did decide to investigate the use of bio-based insulation materials for follow-up projects. For the development of our wood building concept, we started with the familiar traditional insulation materials, which we know what they do in terms of building physics. Applying other materials means you have to research again the effects on heat, fire, noise and moisture. And it may affect your sizing because you have to work with a thicker insulation package for the same performance. So that means work to do. But we don't shy away from the work, because we are constantly striving to improve the environmental performance of our products.”