Multistorey timber construction (MTC) offers a more sustainable architectural alternative to mineral building, but its adoption in Belgium lags. This paper investigates the hypothesis that a limited knowhow on timber construction is a significant barrier to MTC implementation. This study surveys construction professionals with varying experience levels in timber construction to compare perceived challenges between novices and those involved in completed mid-rise timber projects. The research combined literature review, quantitative surveys, and focus groups with timber construction training. Findings reveal that while all participants recognized sustainability benefits, perceived barriers varied significantly by experience level. Technical expertise availability and traditional mineral construction practices were commonly cited challenges. Experienced professionals, except contractors, cited profitability concerns, while novices emphasized building costs and technical limitations, particularly regarding fire performance and durability. The study highlights the need for targeted education, policy changes, and promotion of best practices to address these perceived barriers and facilitate broader adoption of mass timber construction.

Multistorey timber construction (MTC) is widely promoted for lowering embodied carbon, yet its uptake across Europe remains uneven. This study asks which drivers and barriers shape mid-rise wood buildings and how they differ across regions and stakeholders. We combine a structured literature review with a survey of 116 construction professionals across three deliberately contrasted national construction contexts. Belgium as an emerging market, Austria with a growing timber culture, and Norway as a mature policy-driven setting advancing timber. Respondents rated 31 literature-derived factors and 16 strategies. Across all contexts, respondents converge on a shared core: timber was perceived positively when it offered predictable project value, especially construction speed, image/marketing value, sustainability, and user-related benefits. Conversely, obstacles clustered around economic, technical, and legal uncertainty—especially building cost, fire performance, acoustics, conventional procurement, and path dependency. Country patterns suggest different priorities: Belgium may require increased ecosystem readiness, Austria standardisation and clearer regulatory interpretation, and Norway continued political support and market legitimacy. Stakeholder patterns further suggest differentiated support needs across architects, engineers, contractors, clients, suppliers, and verifiers. These findings explore MTC challenges and opportunities as contextual policy and industry priorities for empowering low-carbon construction and the circular economy transition in the built environment.

This educational practice review advocates for integrating critical social science into architecture, highlighting the importance of feminist theories, particularly ecofeminism, to foster foresight skills and envision biofutures with large-scale adoption of biobased materials. It examines barriers to this vision and necessary steps for overcoming them, focusing on an innovative educational approach demonstrated in the "Raw Material Vision" workshop at the University of Antwerp in 2025. The workshop engaged 27 master's students from various design disciplines in exploring sustainable materials like hemp, reclaimed timber, and biopolymers through lectures and hands-on experiments. It combined science fiction prototyping (SFP) with sensory experiences such as forest bathing to promote speculative design thinking and practical application, culminating in a public exhibition that sparked discussions on sustainable architectural practices. This review underscores the potential of interdisciplinary collaboration and digital technologies in enhancing traditional material studies and calls for multiscalar research to integrate these insights into architectural education and practice. Future research is suggested to assess the long-term impact of such educational strategies and explore the scalability of this approach across different contexts, along with the influence of ecofeminist principles in sustainable design.

In an era marked by rapid and constant change, designers are challenged to create solutions that are not only sustainable but also adaptable to an ever-evolving environment. Wood, as a renewable and versatile resource, plays a pivotal role in this context. Also, timber buildings and structures are in a perpetual state of transition, and enabling these transformations is crucial for the sustainable development of our built environment. This chapter discusses adaptability for multi-storey timber buildings, addressing the current lack of empirical data and lived experience in this area. The research aims to identify the technical barriers to adaptation of multi-storey timber buildings and which research currently addresses them. The methodology comprises an in-depth literature review on adaptability in timber engineering and architecture and a comparative analysis of adaptability research. The study highlights the importance of designing timber buildings with adaptability in mind, considering aspects such as acoustics, prefabrication, standardisation, span, fire safety, services and moisture planning. The findings suggest that while timber structures are designed for longevity, their potential for adaptation is often insufficient, emphasizing the need for a more holistic approach to design that includes whole-building scales, while adaptability research does not yet incorporate these timber-specific aspects.