The Research Behind the Rise of Timber

Inside the role of research institutions in shaping tomorrow’s low-carbon buildings

One of Schalk Grobbelar’s favourite stories about timber construction goes like this: A developer was midway through building a restaurant in Pretoria, South Africa when he saw something that changed his mind. At another shopping centre in Pretoria, he witnessed a beautiful timber structure, designed by Earthworld Architects. The developer halted construction and asked his architects to appoint Earthworld Architects to redesign and rebuild the project in timber. 

They are currently building another just like it, and have plans for three more. 

“It’s more expensive,” said Grobbelaar. “But the developer wants people to walk by that building and say: Oh, we want to drink a coffee there!” Grobbelaar added that when the developer spoke at a University of Pretoria timber conference last year, his message was simple: “Your product markets itself. Just get it out there.”

Research institutions: serving industry, government, and students

At an August 2025 Climate Smart Forest Economy Program Global Learning Community session–Building on Research: How Research Institutions are shaping the future of biobased construction–Dorian Tung from FPInnovations in Canada and Schalk Grobbelaar from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, shared how their institutions support multiple stakeholders in the biobased construction ecosystem. 

“We are in the middle, between government and industry,” said Tung, “trying to bring the needs of both parties together. Government is always looking out five or ten years, asking How do I create a more sustainable society and remain a competitive country? Industry wants to solve the problems of today. It asks: How do I ensure healthy cash flow and profits? You need both. Because if businesses aren’t profitable now, the industry doesn’t have a future. But if you aren’t planning for the future, you don’t know where you’re going. So we have to balance the two.” 

Grobbelar added that universities like his support a critical third constituency: students. “Our real influence will probably only start three to four, maybe five years from now,” he said. “When the students currently studying for postgraduate degrees have been in industry for two to three years.” 

Serving all three constituencies well means research institutions must balance multiple priorities, including: 

• focusing on research that meets the real-world needs of businesses; 

• helping governments design goals that are actually feasible; and 

• ensuring students build the knowledge, experience, and relationships they’ll need to drive change 

Three ways research institutions provide support 

1. Focusing on research that answers businesses’ questions

   
   

Asked how he ensures his research is used by industry players, Tung noted that FPInnovations goes about developing its research questions differently from traditional academics. “We immerse ourselves in the market,” he said, “then we develop research questions from the market, instead of the other way around. It’s like doing the research backwards.” 

Grobbelaar concurred, adding that the three core members of his lab all come from industry. “All three of us spent significantly more time in industry than in academia,” he said. “So we automatically have this industry perspective.” 

It’s not surprising, then, that both are focused on providing answers to industry’s most pressing questions. For example, noted Grobbelaar, historically, South Africa has lacked robust materials testing. Without reliable data on the strength of local timber and timber products, architects and engineers over-design buildings, driving up costs. “If we can understand local wood better, we can design better–increasing safety and reducing costs,” he explained. 

Another South Africa-specific challenge is predicting how global timber innovations will perform when made with African species. “If we were to manufacture CLT in South Africa, what species should be combined into the product to optimise its strength properties?” asked Grobbelaar. 

2. Supporting governments in meeting their goals

   
   

Tung explained that research institutions often provide critical support to governments in analysing and executing policy goals. For example, often FPInnovations supports governments to define the problem and identify the solution; analyse the time frame and scale of change required; and then develop a roadmap.

Grobbelaar added that research institutions can ensure a robust research and development sector in any country. When governments/industry provide the funding, while universities support the research, industry can stay on the cutting edge. 

3. Building a network for the next generation

The biggest obstacle to wider timber adoption in South Africa is simple, said Grobbelaar: lack of experience. “Once someone has worked with timber once, they are more likely to use it again,” said Grobbelaar. By giving students hands-on exposure, he hopes to increase the chances that they will choose timber in the future. 

But he isn’t just giving students practical experience–he’s also trying to help them build networks. “Architects need to not just know how to build with timber, but also who they can contact for support,” he said. “Because they’re going to report to senior architects who are going to tell them: listen, it can’t be done. But if they can respond I know five people who have done this in the last year--then it’s a completely different discussion.” 

To extend those networks beyond the classroom, Grobbelaar uses social media. He shares updates not just about his lab’s work, but also about other projects from industry, government, or academic partners. “We try to share the knowledge as widely as possible,” he said, “so knowledge can be transferred more efficiently–through a network of relationships.” 

Tung said FPInnovations has also evolved around social media, which has meant changing how they communicate research. “We now ask our researchers to summarise their works into one-pagers,” he said. “We tell them: start with the end. For the people who want to know the middle and the beginning, they can read the whole paper.” 

“To stay relevant,” he said, “we have to adapt to how a new generation reads, understands, and digests information.” 

The key role of research institutions

So what does a university have to do with a timber-framed coffee shop? 

Quite a lot, it turns out. Behind every visible wood structure are years of unseen work: testing materials, shaping policy, training students, building networks, and telling a new story about what’s possible.

The road may seem long, but change is happening. “If I compare today with even two years ago, it’s chalk and cheese,” said Grobbelaar. “Two years ago, nobody even answered your phone calls or emails. But now it’s changing fast.” 

Both Grobbelaar and Tung attribute the shift to the steady growth of visible projects that are giving everyone–academics, industry professionals, governments, students, and consumers– confidence and experience with timber. 

Reflecting on the story of the Pretoria developer who chose to build his coffee shops in wood, Grobbelaar said “I still think that was one of the best stories I ever heard. Because it simplified what we need to do. You just need to show people timber. And they will be interested.”