VERONA FAIR PREPARES FOR THE 7TH EDITION OF THE INTERNATIONAL LEGNO&EDILIZIA; (WOOD&BUILDING;) TRADE FAIR

Wood is gaining ground again after the crisis that has affected the entire construction industry for a long time; and with its natural qualities it is more than ever viewed as an element capable of giving new impetus to the market, if builders are able to grasp its enormous potential. The use of wood in building construction has increased in a few years from 10 to 20%, and the sector of wood for construction is currently worth about 3 billion euro and growing, in view of the environmental awareness of a large part of the population, and also thanks to the preference shown by more and more architects.

Under these circumstances, specialized trade fairs like Legno&Edilizia, held in Verona every two years and visited by thousands of entrepreneurs and builders from all over the world, become a particularly valuable promotional tool. The next international edition, from March 17 to 20, 2011, will occupy 20,000 sq.mt. with the innovations of 250 producers from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland.

In three buildings at the Veronafiere fairgrounds, the show will present the technological progress achieved by the sector and systems, offering the participants technical update courses, workshops, association meetings and international conferences; including a course for instructors at technical institutions who teach young people about the constructive uses of the various types of lumber.

The fair in Verona, which was visited in the past edition by operators from 25 countries, will feature  a vast sampling of materials and structures: load-bearing structures in wood for residential construction and public installations, carpentry, beams and panels, machinery and tools, lumber, timber, formworks, frames, prefabricated homes and structures for outdoor use, counterframes for doors, floors, ceilings, stairways and wall paneling, and also: glues, paints and ecological stains, fastening systems, security systems, roofing and roof construction, design studies, software and certification. Special sessions will also be held in this coming edition for the presentation of news in the sector of roofing and wall construction.

Within nine years, European builders will have to be able to construct entirely non-polluting buildings, capable of producing all the energy they consume; the builders will also be assigned a quota of old buildings to bring up to the same standard of energy savings. This is in accordance with a resolution approved in 2009 by the Industry, Research and Energy Committee of the European Union, which specifies that actions to increase the energy output of buildings will be compulsory starting from January 2019 also for every building undergoing significant restructuring (over 25% of the area) or replacement of boilers, windows and other elements and technical systems with a cost exceeding 20% of the value of the property.

Clearly, in this situation the presence of European constructors specialized in wood construction will become extremely important, no longer only as a supporting element but as a decisive one for the structures themselves, in future architectures. Wood in building will be more and more important alongside other materials (even the most traditional) treated and managed with greater skill to be not only less harmful for our health, but also to have a lower environmental impact.