Architect Chris Precht presented Bert, a modular timber house, in this Architecture Project Talk presented by Dezeen in partnership with the Forest Stewardship Council. Register to rewatch the webinar.
During the webinar architect Precht, who founded Austria-based practice Precht with his wife Fei Precht, presented the tree-trunk-shaped project, four of which have recently been completed at the Steirereck am Pogusch restaurant in rural Austria.
The online talk was the second of a series of two Dezeen is hosting in partnership with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), where architects speak about their projects built using FSC-certified wood. The webinars count towards continuing professional development (CPD) points for UK architects.
Precht developed Bert in collaboration with Austrian tiny home startup BaumBau, with the intention of creating a building with a minimal footprint. Dezeen revealed early renders in 2019, showing a tree-like cylindrical structure with wooden shingles and large circular windows.
The first iterations of Bert were recently built on the grounds of Steirereck am Pogusch, a restaurant in rural Austria that has been named as one of the world's best. There, the structures will be used as accommodation for both restaurant staff and guests.
The buildings sit on circular bases, with tube-shaped modular cells containing kitchens, living space, bedrooms and bathrooms that can be stacked over and around it like the limbs of a tree branching out from the trunk.
Bert's constituent parts are cut from bent cross-laminated timber using a CNC machine and are prefabricated in a factory before being delivered to the site. The buildings are clad in wooden shingles that will weather and change colour over time.
During the talk, Precht discussed playfulness in architecture and how this attitude can be retained when building at scale, as well as the practical challenges of building a modular cylindrical structure using prefabricated wooden elements.
Architecture Project Talk: Bert took place at 1:00pm London time on Thursday 2 December 2021.
Dezeen x FSC Architecture Project Talks
This series of Architecture Project Talks is produced by Dezeen in collaboration with FSC, a non-profit membership organisation created to maintain sustainable and resilient forests.
FSC certification verifies that the wood used in a project has been sourced sustainably. The organisation currently manages over 225 million hectares of certified forests.
Sign up to FSC's mailing list via the webinar registration pages to hear more.
Read more about Dezeen partnership content here.