The coordinator of the LIFE Wood for Future project, Antolino Gallego, participated last Thursday, November 7, in a Bioeconomy conference organized by the Málaga Provincial Council at La Noria, a social innovation center located in the capital of Málaga. Professor Gallego presented the talk “Structural bioproducts made in Andalucía” within the Bioproducts and Circularity panel.

Starting from the current need to industrialize construction and the growth of the use of structural wood in Spain, Professor Gallego presented the structural products made with wood that have been developed in the project: mixed laminated beams of pine and poplar and the mixed wood-concrete slab system for floors. These products, the first in Andalucía in terms of using local resources, represent an opportunity to maximize the value of wood from Andalusian forests, particularly those in the province of Málaga. This allows for a cascading use of biomass starting from its highest link to its lowest link based on energy biomass. This maximizes the available resources with sustainable forest management in economic terms and job creation in rural areas, which are severely affected by depopulation.

These products will also respond to the growing construction sector in Málaga, a very dynamic area, reducing its carbon footprint and industrializing processes. This latter aspect allows for adjusting construction times and costs, which are of great interest to developers and for creating the much-needed housing, especially in the sector of protected housing for young people.

Additionally, it addresses the demand from the niche sector of foreign owners who have their first or second residence on the Andalusian Mediterranean coast and value wood as a material from their own culture. “It does not seem reasonable that the Cathedral of Málaga should be expanded using wood from the Basque Country when Andalusian wood was used originally. Nonetheless, it is already an achievement not to have to resort to wood from other countries,” argued Gallego. These products have been transferred to the company Iberolam Timber&Technology, a spin-off of the University of Granada, which will manufacture and commercialize them. “If there is no industry, there is no bioeconomy, and all we will have are conferences and empty words,” argued Gallego. “The administration must be exemplary and a driving force to generate demand. It is better and cheaper to implement policies that promote the consumption of forest products, as is being demonstrated in Galicia and France, for example, where legislation requires that 20% or 50% of public buildings are made with wood, respectively,” he argued in his presentation.

The conference was inaugurated by the president of the Diputación, Francisco Salado, and co-organized by the delegations of Social Innovation and Depopulation along with those of Environment, Inland Tourism and Climate Change, and Promotion and Infrastructure of the Diputación de Málaga, with the active participation of the Cesefor Foundation, the University of Málaga, and the Official College of Architects of Málaga.

During the event, María Gafo, deputy director of the Social Sustainability Unit of the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission, presented the work being developed within the framework of the EU in the fight against depopulation with the bioeconomy as a driving force for the transformation of rural areas, paying special attention to generational renewal and CAP measures to support social sustainability. Antonio Ocaña Miguel, Civil Engineer in the Architecture, Urbanism, and Territorial Information Service of the Provincial Council of Málaga, also participated, talking about the weight that the circular bioeconomy has in planning urban sustainability based on criteria of social cohesion impacts, mobility and services, or carbon footprint. For his part, Javier Calvo, Head of Bioeconomy at the Cesefor Foundation, invited mayors to explore the potential of the bioeconomy.

Gabriel A. Gutiérrez, advisor to the Directorate-General for Forest Policy and Biodiversity of the Junta de Andalucía, referred to the drafting of a new Forest Law, which is being finalized by the Andalusian government to progress towards a society that demands raw materials and ecosystem services as a guarantee of environmental conservation. José María Rodríguez, mayor of Yunquera, presented the example of good practices carried out in his municipality thanks to the ‘Heat Network’ project for utilizing forest resources.

Luis Machuca, associate professor at the Higher Technical School of Architecture of the University of Málaga, expressed that “the streets and squares of our towns are spaces for the interaction of their residents, and we must make them safe and comfortable for citizens of all ages, and recoverable architecture is the most coherent with the natural environment due to its high heritage value.” The Territorial Delegate in Málaga for Sustainability, Environment, and Blue Economy of the Junta de Andalucía, José Antonio Víquez, addressed the issue of bioproducts and the circular economy together with Edgar Lafuente, Forest Engineer and Head of the Industry and Construction with Wood Area at Cesefor, who explained that the strengths of building with wood are “its sustainability, as it is a renewable and recyclable resource.” Also participating in the panel was Rafael Cintora, CEO of the company TheKSFactory, who illustrated his presentation with an overview of biological materials based on natural resources in construction.

Manuel García, architect at the Cesefor Foundation, explained that “the challenge of the growing demand for housing in the province of Málaga is industrialized prefabricated construction with biological materials of local origin, as it allows for integrating the entire value chain from the forest to construction.” Pablo Farfán, CEO of Farfán Estudio de BioArquitectura, presented three projects designed and carried out in his studio with engineered structural wood, using different systems and levels of processing. The event concluded with the intervention of Susana Gómez, Dean of the Official College of Architects of Málaga.