Built by Nature, a new body promoting mass-timber construction in Europe, has launched alongside a fund offering grants of up to €250,000 for projects tackling barriers to building with timber.

Built by Nature, founded by the philanthropic body the Laudes Foundation, has a mission to speed progress in timber construction   radically reducing embodied carbon; safely storing carbon in our buildings for generations; and sequestering carbon by championing forest stewardship and regeneration.

The Built by Nature, which has been founded by the  the philanthropic body the Laudes Foundation, launched with an Accelerator Fund offering grants of €50,000-€250,000 to projects across sectors tackling the barriers to building with timber.

“With building space expected to double globally before 2050, we must reimagine the way we build, from a carbon-intensive industry to one that helps remove more carbon from the atmosphere than it adds. Accelerating the timber building transformation, in a way that works in unison with nature, is critical to address the built environment’s carbon footprint,” says Built by Nature chair Donald Brenninkmeijer.

“Built By Nature supports those leaders working at the forefront of this challenge. We connect industry and city frontrunners, enabling them to research, demonstrate and scale their innovations, and remove political and legislative barriers. We also amplify new narratives to change mindsets about timber construction – first in Europe, and then throughout the rest of the world.”

The first three projects to receive funding are a bio-based building concept by Holland Houtland,  a new model for engineered timber housing by Waugh Thistleton Architects with University College London and an exhibition of cutting edge building solutions by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalunya’s Valldaura Labs (IAAC).

“Construction needs radical change. The way we build now is directly responsible for millions of tons of carbon emissions; we need to re-focus our efforts onto using bio-based building materials – ones that we don’t scrape from the surface of our planet,” says Waugh Thistleton Architects founder Andrew Waugh. “This is going to take mass collaboration from the built environment industry – the sharing of innovation and experience.”

More information of the types of projects eligible for funding are available alongside details of the application process on the Built by Nature website.