Edinburgh Napier University

  The InFutUReWood project (infuturewood.info) focuses on the reuse of structural timber and is working on improving the design of buildings to facilitate deconstruction and reuse. For this purpose, we conducted five case studies in four of the partner countries, which analyse the design of contemporary houses and seek to improve them to facilitate deconstruction and reuse. The case study presented here focuses on a Scottish light timber frame house, which is partly manufactured offsite and is a typical example of UK timber-frame construction. We conclude that deconstruction and reuse of building elements from modern UK timber frame houses might already be feasible with conventional designs. Up to 95% of the timber structure can be recovered and reused, and small adaptations of the design would facilitate recovery and open more reuse possibilities. If companies had the intention to reuse houses when they are planning and building them, most obstacles that complicate deconstruction and reuse would fall into place effortlessly.