About Modular Wooden Houses and its origin
System development
This building system was developed in Norway between 1990 and 1997. Unfortunately, the system could not be established in the Norwegian market at that time. However, about 30 years after, the modular system is still highly up-to-date, and more than ever urgently needed seen from an environmental perspective. By enabling reuse of building elements and components, much GHG emissions can be avoided and lumber material put to sustainable use.
The development was initiated by Walter Kraus, founder and investor of the project leading company "Økologiske hus as", a Norwegian building contractor and real estate developer. The technology development happened in close cooperation with the Norwegian architectural firm Gaia Lista a.s. and architect Bjørn Berge.
It was partly financed by
- the Norwegian Research Council (NFR) and
- the Norwegian Ministry of Environment (SFT).
The following research institutions contributed to the development of the modular system:
- Architecture and construction technology: SINTEF (Foundation of Industrial and Technical Research at the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim)
- Statics: Professor Petter Aune, Norwegian Institute of Technology, Trondheim
- Air conditioning technology (ventilation): SINTEF, Trondheim
The following companies participated in the project, which at the time reflected who is who in the Norwegian building industry, in addition to some minor local companies, which have been developed in connection with this project:
- Marnardal Treformidling BA (timber components)
- Norsk Leca (foundations and wet rooms)
- Agder Spennbetong (foundation system)
- Norsk Tegl as (wet rooms)
- Norsk Celluloseisolasjon (thermal insulation)
- Norsk Wallboard as (vapor barrier)
- Grindland Trevarefabrik as (window + doors)
- Ozo-Hokksund as (installation)
- Siemens AG (electric), et al.
The Marnardal project
The mentioned technological development for wooden houses was part of a larger local project, Walter Kraus initiated in 1990. That was the time when Norwegian economy was under stress, with high interest rates and unemployment. The prices for lumber, the largest source of income of the local economy, dropped dramatically. Kraus suggested the Marnardal project and received much political support from local people, farmers and forest owners as well as politicians.
The idea of the project was to create local jobs through the development of a local product line, which was able to support local economy sufficiently. Marnardal was the largest Norwegian lumber community. There were many smaller forest owners with small and partly water driven saw mills. Producing modular elements for a modular building system was an achievable job for them - and they loved to do it, because thus, the forest owners were able to get more value out of their woods instead of selling lumber to economically unsustainable prices. It was a low-tech-approach, which was adapted to the local resources, conditions and problems.
The forest owners went into the old people homes and interviewed the retired farmers, carpenters and forest owners about the traditional methods of timber production and use, which their fathers and grandfathers still were familiar with, but almost was forgotten due to modern building methods, which they were told were better. However, modern Norwegian houses with wood structures had an average life expectancy of 40 to 50 years. On the other hand, the beautiful old over 500 years old stave churches still stood there and looked quite solid and stable. The old valuable methods of tree cutting, tree preparation, and methods of lumber evaluation were taken seriously and implemented into the system. The project even investigated the production and use of wood tar for wood impregnation (see image).
In 1991, Kraus wrote the book "Marnardalprojektet" (in Norwegian language), which was published and received national interest. The main Norwegian TV channel run a 15 minutes program during prime time, and the national newspapers wrote about it. Shortly thereafter, Swedish TV made a 30 minute film about the Marnardal project, which was sent 5 times in Sweden due to the high public demand.
Unfortunately, all this publicity did not lead to a firm industrial production. Consequent environmental thinking was still quite alien in Scandinavia. The prototype buildings still exist, but the company Økologiske hus AS was liquidated in 1998 and the IP of the development is still owned by Walter Kraus. License agreements are available. See under the section "Contact".
About Walter Kraus
Born in Krefeld, Germany, Walter Kraus emigrated with his wife and three small children to Norway in 1982. He was entrepreneur already in Germany, sold the business and built the first eco-friendly house in Norway between 1984 and 1986. Thereafter he wrote a book about the project (Miljøhus, 1986, in Norwegian language), which was for many years a much sited reference book on green and healthy house building in Norway. Thereafter, Kraus founded the company "Økologiske hus AS" and developed the Modular Wooden House building system within the Marnardal project in Norway. Unfortunately, he was not able to establish the concept in Norway at that time, and the company was liquidated in 1998. As the sole owner of the liquidated company, he still owns the IP generated.
Today, Kraus runs and owns the Norwegian technology company "IBSENtelecom AS", developing and manufacturing optical wireless communication devices for the international robot industry since 2010, in close cooperation with the Fraunhofer Instititue for Photonic Micro Systems in Dresden, Germany.
Between 2014 and 2017 he developed the first Renewable Energy Micro Utility of its kind for the Ministry of Power in Nigeria, which equipped an off-grid Nigerian village with 24/7 solar electricity, providing street lights in the village and electric connections in the 100 houses and businesses. He presented the system to the delegates of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) in Abuja in 2017.
Since 2019, Walter Kraus is also co-founder, investor and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Silicon Valley ag company "Symbiotic Agriculture, Inc.", headquartered in Woodside California. This start-up focusing on the transformation of agriculture towards sustainable methods and developing with his co-founder John Novitsky, a former Intel executive, organic soil amendments with great success.
Kraus moved in 2017 with his wife to Berlin, from where he runs his firms and development projects.