Wikihouse in Germany?

Has anyone ever built a wikihouse (not a demo project) in Germany?

We recently had a discussion about this with an architect who said that this would be a new way to build, but to his knowledge there is no structural data for it yet. At least none according to German building law.

Accordingly, the house would have to be completely recalculated by a structural engineer. However, this would drive up the costs enormously, so that a house would be more expensive than a conventional one.

I would like to exchange with someone who has either already done this in Germany or is facing the same problem.

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Hi @Littlebig ,
every project (including in the UK) needs to be calculated and signed by a structural engineer regardless. The “structural data” provide scientific evidence to which calculation method/formula is more appropriate. That’s because sometimes for a structural engineer is difficult to know which mathematical model should be applied if this is not backed up by experimental evidence. In this sense, structural data and mathematical models are ‘agnostic’ with respect to the building code that you are using. To my understanding, the building code comes to play when safety coefficients are applied, because these last might differ from country to country. Having said that, Germany should be using the Eurocode 5 as well as DIN. Therefore, our worked examples should be applicable to Germany as well in terms of safety coefficients.
I would suggest your structural engineer to check our page about how to calculate WikiHouse What is Skylark
That might take 3-4 hours of time from her/his side to become familiar with the design process, but once that is clear, I don’t see why this should drive she cost “enormously” up? Perhaps I am missing something but please feel free to send me an email for more details/clarifications if needed. It would be great to see WikiHouse is Germany!

Gabriele

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Yes, I know. I already talked to an expert. But because there are no comparable projects available in Germany, houses need to be calculated from scratch. The first one needs the most calculations. All others could build upon the first calculation. That’s what he told me. Hence, if I hire him for the structural planning, I’d pay much more than for a conventional house. I agree it’d be great to see Wikihouse in Germany, but I am reluctant to pay for it. Maybe, there is a university that is interested to move into it with a project to address the housing and ecological topics we’re currently facing.

Hi I am from Korea.
We also have same issue. Law is strict.
These days , in Korea , wood base simple house 99 square meter cost about $74596.85.

So somebody in Korea should do testing with Korean law basis and maybe he/she can start wood part selling with consulting.

And in Korea , there is no maker culture so much , so it is better to sell whole service including assembly or so. So considering human labor cost , the part productions cost should be way cheaper than getting equivalent part through traditional way.