Young timber construction talents inspire enthusiasm at the challenge in Carinthia!

Young timber construction talents inspire enthusiasm at the challenge in Carinthia!

The Timber Construction Challenge 2025 recently took place in Carinthia, where students from five agricultural schools realized creative wooden designs. This exciting event aimed to arouse young people's interest in the carpentry profession and to open up new perspectives through creative projects using wood as a material. The participants each received 4.6 cubic meters (2.6 tons) of wood, which was provided in the form of slats and squared timber. They were supported by experienced patronage wood construction masters who accompanied and guided the students throughout the entire process. The activities included planning, sawing, building and finally the presentation of the finished projects, which were evaluated by an expert jury. This reports Click Carinthia.

The projects from the various schools represented an impressive variety. The students from the St. Andrä Agricultural School in Lavanttal designed a mobile classroom, while the Agricultural Technical School and Agrar-HAK Althofen built a covered rest area and the Stiegerhof Agricultural School in Gödersdorf built a chapel. Further contributions came from the Goldbrunnhof technical school in Völkermarkt, which designed a mobile sales stand, and the Litzlhof education center in Lendorf near Spittal, where a market stand was built. The expert jury honored the most creative and sustainable works, with the mobile classroom from LFS St. Andrä taking first place. Online voting was possible for the public until June 10th, in which over 7,300 votes were cast; The audience award went to the LFS Stiegerhof chapel. Antenna Carinthia continues to report on the event.

National importance and training initiatives

The Timber Construction Challenge is part of innovative educational formats that are also being developed as part of the “Future Timber Construction – Qualification Paths for Sustainable Construction” project. This project started on June 1, 2022 and is scheduled to run until May 31, 2025. With a budget of around 2 million euros, new paths for training and qualification in timber construction are being developed. The focus includes the sustainable development of timber construction, modern digital tools and practice-oriented content. Further programs, such as the development of online learning sequences and the introduction of the “kursm.app” as a digital skills store, are intended to support future generations in timber construction and promote practical developments, explains the website carpentry center.

At the final event of the Timber Construction Challenge in the Bau & Technik Guild House, representatives from politics and business honored the young people's extraordinary achievements. Among those honored were Deputy State Governor Martin Gruber and State Guild Master Fritz Klaura, both of whom emphasized the importance of such projects for the development of young talent in wood construction. Combining traditional craftsmanship with creative approaches not only strengthens craftsmanship, but also promotes sustainability awareness for future generations.