Design as a Driver of a New Building Culture
For a long time, the barriers to biobased construction were not only a lack of awareness or doubts about feasibility. Equally important was the absence of a mature value chain. There was little clarity around processing, market demand and commercial development. Design helped make new materials and construction systems tangible, translating them into applications that builders, clients and policymakers could envision in practice.
Biobasecamp, designed by Studio Marco Vermeulen, was arguably one of the most talked-about projects of DDW19. More than a pavilion on the central Ketelhuisplein, it served as one of the first prototypes demonstrating timber construction at this scale. The fully prefabricated structure enabled rapid on-site assembly and was described as “an architectural expression of what building with trees can mean for the reduction of CO₂ emissions and nitrogen pollution”.
Timber Builders
Shortly afterwards, Biobasecamp featured in the VPRO Tegenlicht episode Houtbouwers, after which Tegenlicht described timber construction as “the talk of the day” during DDW. According to Vermeulen, many visitors felt that “a movement” had begun. Five years later, Johan Paul Borreman of timber construction company Derix Nederland remarked that within the company people speak of “the period before the Timber Builders episode and the period after”.
The attention extended far beyond the design and construction sectors. During a parliamentary debate on 29 October 2019, D66 MP Jessica van Eijs explicitly referred to “a wonderful Tegenlicht episode on timber construction” before submitting a motion on the potential benefits of large-scale timber construction for reducing nitrogen emissions, addressing climate challenges and tackling the housing shortage. On the same day, GroenLinks MP Tom van der Lee submitted a motion promoting the use of sustainable timber in construction. VPRO later documented this political response as part of its Timber Builders dossier.
A National Approach
Today, biobased construction is far more than an aesthetic niche. The construction sector faces growing pressure to build faster, more sustainably and with less dependence on fossil-based and mineral resources. At the same time, agriculture is searching for new revenue models and ways to reduce its environmental impact. It is at this intersection that a new market has emerged in recent years.
In response, the Dutch government launched the National Approach to Biobased Construction in 2023, backed by €200 million to accelerate the production and application of biobased building materials. The ambition is that by 2030, thirty per cent of all new housing developments will consist of at least thirty per cent biobased materials. According to Building Balance, that figure was still below three per cent in 2025.
Natural Materials
Biobased construction makes use of timber as well as materials such as hemp, flax, straw and mycelium, often combined with residual streams from agriculture and wood processing. TNO links biobased construction to off-site manufacturing, prefabrication and modularity, arguing that these approaches can help accelerate and scale up housing production.
This makes biobased construction particularly relevant for a sector facing labour shortages, inefficiencies and rising material costs. An analysis of 59 Dutch timber construction projects found that single-family homes built using timber frame construction or hybrid CLT/timber-frame systems can now compete economically with conventional construction methods.
While the first wave of biobased construction focused largely on timber, the narrative broadened as other materials and production chains gained visibility. A pivotal moment was The Growing Pavilion by Biobased Creations and Dutch Design Foundation (DDF). The project brought together timber, hemp, mycelium, cattail and cotton within a single building, presenting them not as substitutes born of necessity, but as materials with their own aesthetics, characteristics and applications.
Lucas De Man of Biobased Creations described the pavilion as a glimpse into the near future. At the same time, it highlighted what is needed beyond innovative materials alone: regulation, design, production capacity and public acceptance. In doing so, the conversation shifted from materials themselves to the conditions required for a market to emerge.
The Exploded View
After The Growing Pavilion, one practical question remained: can these materials actually be used to build a home? The Exploded View set out to answer that question. First as a research project featuring a life-sized scale model, and later as a full-scale house constructed from nearly one hundred natural building materials at different stages of development. Visitors were not only able to see the materials, but also touch, smell and experience them within a built environment. As Lucas De Man put it: “You walk through the house and can see, feel and smell all the materials.”
By presenting materials as real-world applications rather than technical datasheets, the distance between designers, builders, housing associations and investors becomes smaller. The same dynamic can be seen at the material level. Through Driving Dutch Design and later the Embassy of Circular Biobased Building, designer Rik Maarsen (RikMakes) developed Compostboard: a sheet material made from organic residual streams such as hemp, straw, flax, roadside grass, miscanthus and pepper plants.
In an interview, Maarsen described it as “a material that has a right to exist because it can fundamentally be used on and with this earth”. His work demonstrates that the economic potential of biobased construction lies not only in complete buildings, but also in the emergence of entirely new product categories for interiors and finishing applications.
From Field to Building
At the same time, attention increasingly shifted towards the value chains behind these materials. The National Approach to Biobased Construction explicitly promotes collaboration between farmers, processors and builders. Building Balance summarises this development as “from field to building”.
Fibre crops such as hemp, flax and miscanthus are gaining a place not only in agriculture but also in construction. The initiative Boeren voor Biobased Bouwen describes it in practical terms: agricultural land can be used to grow fibre crops that are transformed into sustainable building products, helping to reduce nitrogen emissions while storing carbon.
In 2023, BAM Wonen joined the Van Land Tot Pand programme. Chairman Dinant te Brinke saw clear opportunities to apply biobased materials on a larger scale. For BAM, the value lies not only in sustainable products, but in creating value throughout the entire chain. “Together with our partners across the chain, we are able to develop concrete solutions and applications for a variety of fibre crops. In doing so, we accelerate the adoption of sustainable products and create societal value throughout the value chain.”
Scaling Up
The fact that biobased construction is gradually moving beyond its pioneering phase is evident in the scale at which market players are now making commitments. In June 2025, Building Balance announced that eight major developers, including BAM, BPD, Dura Vermeer and Heijmans, had committed to biobased construction. Together, these companies account for approximately a quarter of all housing development in the Netherlands.
Their commitment is clear: by 2028, at least thirty per cent of their residential projects of up to five storeys will consist of a minimum of thirty per cent biobased materials. This translates into approximately 10,000 homes over the next two and a half years, followed by 5,000 homes annually thereafter. Norbert Schotte of Building Balance described the agreement as “a major step towards a circular construction economy”.
The financial sector is also beginning to shift. In 2025, Rabobank and BPD announced that Rabobank would make €100 million available over a four-year period for new-build homes incorporating natural materials and water-saving systems. The funding is intended to help bridge additional costs and stimulate demand for biobased building materials.
BPD CEO Harm Janssen commented: “This investment enables us to accelerate the construction of homes using biobased materials, making these more sustainable building methods increasingly accessible.” The same thinking can be seen at project level. Speaking about a BAM Wonen project using straw roof elements, product developer Sophie Kuijpers noted: “You are not only helping the construction sector, but also the farmer.”
These developments demonstrate that the economic impact of biobased construction lies in scale, demand certainty and a new distribution of value across the entire supply chain.
The Future
The growth of the market depends on more than supply, demand and investment. Regulations and assessment methods also play an important role. In 2021, parliamentary questions were raised following concerns that the carbon emissions associated with steel and concrete were only partially reflected in the MilieuPrestatie Gebouwen (MPG) calculation methodology. This sparked a broader discussion about how different building materials should be assessed and compared.
That debate continues to shape both research and policy. Studio Marco Vermeulen collaborated with ministries, provinces and the Board of Government Advisors on the strategic exploration Space for Biobased Construction. Here, the focus shifts from materials to spatial planning: how can housing, nature, agriculture and industry be connected within a single system?
This question is increasingly finding expression in large-scale projects. One example is The Dutch Mountains in Eindhoven, a timber-hybrid development comprising 65,000 square metres of floor space, including 224 homes, 14,000 square metres of offices and a hotel with conference facilities. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2027. If realised as planned, Eindhoven could be home to the largest timber building in the world by 2030.
This question is already taking shape in tangible projects. One example is Dutch Mountains in Eindhoven, a timber-hybrid development comprising 65,000 square metres, with 224 homes, 14,000 square metres of office space and a hotel with conference facilities. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2027. If completed as planned, Eindhoven could be home to the world’s largest timber building by 2030.
Biobased construction is not a finished success story, but a development that continues to evolve. What is particularly interesting is that design has not been used as decoration or as the final step in the process, but as a way of making new materials, value chains and construction methods visible and imaginable at an early stage. In this context, DDW was never an end point. Year after year, it provided a platform where the latest developments became visible to a broad audience and, in doing so, reached a wider market.
What began there as experimentation continued through research, collaboration, policy and market development. Today, timber construction is no longer a distant vision of the future. It has become a growing part of the market and an increasingly permanent feature of the built environment.