An Industry in Transition: Early Glue-Laminated Timber in Switzerland, 1909-1939

Abstract

By the introduction of glulam in Switzerland in 1908, the initiators promised to upgrade and expand the possibilities of the old building material, timber. The new shapeable and large-scale components established timber in modern building and infrastructure construction. Within this process, not only did the material undergo a transformation, but reciprocally, the new timber as well caused a transformation of the building sector itself. New design and construction procedures required both new technical knowledge and collaborations between different established and emerging specialists leading to a new network of timber structures production in Switzerland. This project, through a theoretical orientation based on the Actor-Network Theory approach, traces the transformation of an industry in Switzerland through the introduction of glulam and demonstrates that the success of the technology benefited greatly from the already existing crisis in the timber construction sector, as well as the particular Swiss way of the organization of the shifting power and competence towards technical engineering and fabrication. Ironically, the rapid and widespread establishment of glulam was possible primarily because of the high level of craftsmanship and construction expertise on the side of the contractors, but in turn, glulam reduced this latter precisely because of the disempowerment of the construction site. Considering the high relevance of glulam to our building industry today, and the existing fascination which sees no end in sight for this material-technology, this dissertation offers new perspectives on the contemporary questions about glulam.