The ninth Building Physics Conference was held at Tampere Hall as usual. The building physics research group of Tampere University organised the event for the third time in cooperation with the Real Estate Education Centre Kiinko. At the request of our partners, the conference had now been turned into a two-day event, so the presentations were held in three or four halls at the same time.
The construction industry and Finland in general are currently experiencing the weakest economic situation since the recession of the 1990s. The economic situation has also affected the number of participants and the implementation of the building physics conference. Despite everything, the event attracted 51 partners, which is the same number as last time, and the number of participants is almost at the same level as last time, as the conference gathered more than 460 participants. The conference featured 99 speeches on various topics of building physics.
The conference days were divided into themes on different topics and the aim was not to present issues close to the same topic in different halls at the same time. The topics of the first day are once again related to the design and implementation of building physics, the thermal and moisture engineering of structures, and new instructions. On the same day, topics related to the energy efficiency of building technology and structures were also presented. On the second day, the focus is on renovation in the traditional way, moisture and mould problems in buildings, harmful substances and indoor air quality. Other topics include the effects of climate change, moisture and drying of concrete, natural and low-carbon construction, and acoustics.
This time, the conference included three keynote speeches. On the first day, keynote speeches were given by Professor Nathan Van Den Bossche from Ghent University in Belgium and Dr. Daniel Zirkelbach Fraunhofer from IBP (Institute for Building Physics) in Germany. On the second day, the keynote speech was given by Professor Ulla Haverinen-Shaughnessy from the University of Oulu. You can find out more about the keynote speakers on the conference website from this link.
The award for moisture-safe construction was presented at the conference at the end of the first day. It was awarded for the 7th time. A total of 25 competition entries were nominated for the prize, of which the five entries considered by the jury to be the most meritorious were presented in a session of the winning candidates. The award for moisture-safe construction was awarded to the working group that studied drying of the DELTABEAM® structure.
The presentations of the keynote speakers can be downloaded as pdf versions:
Keynote 1: Professor Nathan Van Den Bossche, Ghent University, Belgium: Why building physics did not solve moisture problems (yet)
Keynote 2: Dr. Daniel Zirkelbach, Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics, Germany: Customized hygrothermal design for resilient and durable buildings
Keynote 3: Professor Ulla Haverinen-Shaughnessy, University of Oulu: Is it worthwhile to renovate buildings to make them healthy from the perspective of building users, owners and the national economy? (in Finnish)
Here you can see pictures of the event.