About us

Welcome to the intersection of innovation and sustainability,
where wood meets plastics, and science meets practicality.

Our work at Holzbauforschung Mainz | Timber and Plastics Research Group of the Hochschule Mainz | University of Applied Sciences is focused on the challenges of our time: climate change, resource efficiency, sustainability and preservation of our built environment. We are advancing timber in construction and promoting the use of wood as a sustainable and versatile building material. The results or our research and activities are reflected in undergraduate and graduate study courses of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Our aim is to develop and promote innovative solutions for the sustainable use of more climate resistant hardwood species as building material. Our projects are diverse and forward-looking, ranging from the development of new wood-based materials from hard- and softwoods with improved mechanical properties to the optimization of timber structures for multi-storey timber buildings, residential, industrial and bridge constructions. We want to promote and disseminate the advantages of wood as a sustainable, versatile and aesthetic building material. In doing so, we work closely with partners from industry, carpentry, academia and society.

The Timber and Plastics Research Group is investigating the interactions between wood and plastics in hybrid structures, analyzing adhesion, mechanical properties, and aging resistance of structures, coatings and building components. Our expertise extends to the assessment of the residual load-bearing capacity of historical wooden structures, industrial timber construction, high-performance plastics in construction, and numerical modeling of composite systems, where anisotropic engineering properties for use in design codes are being derived from testing full-size specimen and structural elements.

Mechanical testing and evaluation of materials and structures in the structural lab are our core competencies. Non-destructive technologies, like visual assessment, ultrasonic methods, artificially accelerated aging and UV radiation are also applied in our lab's. Computed tomography scan, X-ray technology, 3D laser triangulation and realistic 3D image representations of logs and timber are used together with our research partner institute.