Research: engineering wood for a regenerative built environment
Andreja Kutnar works at the meeting point of wood material science, the forest, and human health. Her research modifies timber so it can replace energy-intensive concrete and steel, and reads how a wood interior acts on the people inside it.
Thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) and densification
Thermal modification, surface densification, and viscoelastic thermal compression (VTC): heat, steam and mechanical force reshape wood cells for higher density, dimensional stability and durability.
Wood-water relations and durability
How modified wood takes up and resists moisture, the property that governs decay resistance, bonding and service life.
Wood in the built indoor environment
Wood interiors and the human stress response, the restorative-environment line that links material choice to psychophysiological health.
Life-cycle and the value chain
Environmental-impact and life-cycle thinking across the wood value chain, from forest to building to end of life.
Research areas per her InnoRenew CoE and University of Primorska profiles. Bibliometric snapshot (Google Scholar, 26 June 2026): approximately 4,858 citations, h-index 34, i10-index 74. [verify], metrics drift over time.
Selected publications
Four signature papers, each with its full record and DOI confirmed. Citation counts are Google Scholar snapshots and carry [verify].
Books (full records to confirm at citation, no DOI): Sandberg, Kutnar, Karlsson & Jones (2021), Wood Modification Technologies: Principles, Sustainability, and the Need for Innovation, CRC Press; Sandak, Sandak, Brzezicki & Kutnar (2019), Bio-based Building Skin, Springer. [verify]
Leadership and networks
Kutnar builds the institutions and networks that carry wood science into practice and policy.
The New European Bauhaus
Kutnar coordinates the New European Bauhaus Academy Alliance, the training arm that upskills professionals for bio-based construction, renovation and urban transformation. The Academy was established at the University of Primorska.
The New European Bauhaus core values, rendered as the European Commission defines them. Kutnar (2025) introduces NEB and the NEB Academy from a wood-science standpoint and references this slogan.
Worldview: regenerative sustainability with wood
Kutnar's argument is that the construction sector can move toward regenerative sustainability, where a building improves its environment across its whole life, and that wood is the material that carries forest science, material science and human health together.
InnoRenew CoE advances nature-based solutions, especially using wood, that support and accelerate the adoption of regenerative sustainability through design solutions for health and sustainability based on Restorative Environmental and Ergonomic Design (REED). InnoRenew CoE, institutional statement of mission
Regenerative sustainability
Buildings that give back to their environment across the whole lifespan, the step beyond doing less harm.
REED
Restorative Environmental and Ergonomic Design: building for human health and ecological restoration together (Kellert lineage).
Wood, forest, health
Modified wood as a structural material, a carbon store, and a restorative presence in the rooms people live and work in.
Awards and recognition
Zois Certificate of Recognition
Slovenia's national recognition for achievement in scientific research, for her work in wood science. Presented 27 November 2018, Ljubljana.
Prometheus of Science
Slovenian recognition (Prometej znanosti) for excellence in science communication.
#EUwomen4future
Featured in the European Commission campaign recognising outstanding women in research and innovation.
Jesenko Award
Best PhD graduate of the year (2008) and undergraduate excellence (2004), Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana. [verify]