The International Forum of Architecture and Construction in Wood celebrates its 11th edition, bringing together knowledge, innovation and business across its different spaces.

As timber construction evolves, it faces complex technical challenges that call for innovative answers: solutions that combine the highest levels of safety with comfort, efficiency and new building systems. These are the key themes shaping the programme of the Technical Sessions at Egurtek, the International Forum on Timber Architecture and Construction, which returns to Bilbao Exhibition Centre on 28 and 29 October.

Organised by Baskegur, the Basque Timber Association, the four sessions will explore issues that are critical to the future of architecture, design and building with timber, a renewable and sustainable material that is very much on the rise and well placed to meet the climate and social challenges of the 21st century.

One session will look at timber architecture and fire. Cristian Maluk, technical director at DAMA Engineering Consultants and a specialist in fire safety engineering research and practice, will take an in-depth look at analysis and design methods, as well as risk mitigation strategies. He will also present prescriptive and performance-based design approaches, together with case studies and the latest research advances aimed at delivering safer, more efficient buildings.

Heritage restoration in timber will be another highlight of the programme. The session will focus on the transformation of the former Convent of the Discalced Carmelites, also known as the Convent of San José, in Zumaia. This 17th-century building has been converted into a Cultural Centre by ZETABI Arkitektura Bulegoa, working in collaboration with TECNALIA and Gipuzkoa Provincial Council. It is a remarkable project, combining conservation work with improvements in safety, energy efficiency, sustainability and accessibility.

The session will examine the project from a multidisciplinary perspective, bringing together Ainara Iroz (Head of the Heritage Service, Gipuzkoa Provincial Council), Josu Maroto (architect, Heritage Service, Gipuzkoa Provincial Council), Aitor Zubia and Uzuri Larrañana (architects at ZETABI Arkitektura Bulegoa) and Josu Benito (Head of the Timber Strategic Line at TECNALIA), who will share their experience of carrying out this intervention.

Matxalen Acasuso Atutxa, former Dean of the Basque-Navarre Official Association of Architects (COAVN), and Paz Martín Rodríguez, co-director of the architecture practice FÜNDC, will join the programme to discuss habitability and comfort in timber interiors. The two are co-authors of habitaTU, a guide that reflects on the limits set by current regulations and on new approaches to living space in the design of homes, residences and hotels in the Basque Country.

They will explain how timber helps to create healthier, more comfortable indoor environments, supporting the well-being of the people who use them and improving factors such as natural humidity regulation. They will also highlight the material’s role in industrialised construction and dry-assembly systems, which make spaces more flexible, and its contribution to reducing environmental impact.

Distinctive building envelopes and the industrialisation of timber façades will take centre stage in another session, which will look closely at how pre-industrialised construction systems demand greater coordination between everyone involved in a project, along with more precise planning. Two benchmark projects will serve as reference points: the façade of Bodegas Faustino in Oión (Araba), with its striking elliptical oak curtain wall, and the KNEM Building in Barcelona, where a radiata pine curtain wall is combined with walkways and an outer aluminium double skin. Both show the versatility, technical precision and aesthetic value that timber brings to today’s industrialised façades.

The speakers will be Narcís Poza Belmonte, manager of Talleres Inox S.A. and a leading name in building envelopes; Félix Flüshöh, operations director at Grupo Gámiz; and Aurelio Gamiz Urrutia, Sales Manager at Grupo Gámiz, who is responsible in Spain for the strategy and specification of high-performance timber technologies such as Accoya.

The Technical Sessions are part of the wide-ranging Egurtek 2026 programme, which in this eleventh edition will include the Congress, an Exhibition Area, the Egurtek Awards ceremony, Innovation Workshops and networking activities.

 

WORKinn Talent Hub

Egurtek 2026’s commitment to strengthening the entire timber and construction value chain will also extend to employment. For the first time, the forum will host WORKinn, a space designed to connect companies and professionals from the forestry-timber and building sectors, and to showcase the job and career development opportunities that the industry has to offer.

On the 29th, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., participating companies will present their job vacancies and explain their recruitment processes, the profiles most in demand today and the new skills the industry will need in the years ahead.

Egurtek is organised by Bilbao Exhibition Centre with the support of the Basque Government’s Department of Food, Rural Development, Agriculture and Fisheries as institutional partner, and Baskegur – the Basque Timber Association, the Basque-Navarre Official Association of Architects, the Bilbao School of Engineering/University of the Basque Country, Infoedita and Tecnalia as sector partners.