/THÝAAR/


Thýra (door, threshold, beginning) + RAAR (Reusable Architectural Assemblies Research)

THYAAR is a not-for-profit design research initiative focusing on developing reusable architectural assemblies. Four benchmarks define the work: 1. Faster to build than conventional light frame systems. 2. As easy to disassemble as to assemble. 3. As economical as traditional light-frame systems, with better structural and functional performance. 4. Adaptable to a wide range of designs and layouts. What follows are periodic updates recording this ongoing endeavor. THYAAR is directed by Pouya Khadem and it’s based in Houston, TX.
JULY 2026  |  RESEARCH  |  NOTE K

Panel ID: A Title Instrument

A recovered CLT panel derives its value from what can be verified about it; condition of its lamellae, adhesive type and certification date, structural role and load history, moisture exposure, disassembly scenario designation, penetrations accumulated over its service life, and the design life remaining. A panel without this information is an object of unknown provenance requiring extensive testing before an engineer can specify it or a lender can underwrite its reuse. With a verifiable record and limited confirmatory testing, the same panel becomes an asset.

Panel ID, a standardized digital identification document assigned to every CLT panel and a function THYAAR is developing, records, displays, and continuously updates the technical, structural, and ownership history of each panel throughout its lifespan. The concept builds upon the material passport framework pioneered by the EU-funded Buildings as Material Banks (BAMB) project, which defines a material passport as an electronic dataset describing the characteristics that give building materials value for recovery and reuse. Panel ID extends this concept by treating each structural panel, not the whole building, as the unit of identification.

Panel ID, created per CLT panel, is issued to the owner (like a vehicle title or parcel deed, an object of property law). Its records are maintained by an independent entity rather than by the manufacturer, contractor, designer, or owner, ensuring continuity across changes in ownership and throughout multiple building lifecycles. Beyond serving as a digital identifier, the Panel ID acts as a certificate of ownership, allowing CLT panels to be transacted, appraised, authenticated, and exchanged ahead of the recovery time, highlighting its critical role in allowing a panel to be a constant participant within the market (see Note C: Matrix of Circularities, An Ecosystem). In addition to supporting the environmental objectives of circularity, Panel ID addresses the financial and legal infrastructures of circularity as well. Under this framing, the Panel ID becomes the technology that makes the promise of “Essential Seed as Material Bank”  viable.

Every panel in an Essential Seed development is born digital: its geometry, dimensions, species, and strength grade are already encoded in the 3D and CNC fabrication files before the panel physically exists. The Panel ID formalizes the digital birth record. During service life, the record updates at project-specific audit points, and here the phasing strategy performs double duty, since every expansion or reduction event is an inspection event as well. Although the detailed recovery protocol is to be developed, the framework presented in this research, together with emerging tools and methods from related research in the field—provides an overall basis for how a recovery process could be implemented.

Regulatory momentum is already converging on this infrastructure: the European Union's revised Construction Products Regulation (EU 2024/3110), in action since January 2025, mandates digital product passports for construction products, phasing in from 2026 toward full lifecycle reporting by 2032, while platforms such as Madaster already operate building-level material registries in the Netherlands. The United States has no equivalent mandate, which means that in the American market, systems like Panel ID must emerge through industry practice rather than legislative mandate. Essential Seed framework can become the demonstration cases that regulation can later codify.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

  1. Ikenze, Nwamaka, and Vasileios Rizos. How Digital Product Passports Can Enhance Waste Wood Valorisation and Circularity in the EU. CEPS In-Depth Analysis 2025-09. Brussels: Centre for European Policy Studies, Energy, Resources and Climate Change Unit, July 16, 2025. https://www.ceps.eu/ceps-publications/how-digital-product-passports-can-enhance-waste-wood-valorisation-and-circularity-in-the-eu/ and https://cdn.ceps.eu/2025/07/2025-09_ERCC_W2W-1607-formatted.pdf. 
  2. Waste Management World. "Wood Recycling: The Digital Identity Card That Could Transform Europe's Wood Waste Crisis." Waste Management World, December 22, 2025. https://waste-management-world.com/resource-use/the-digital-identity-card-that-could-transform-europes-wood-waste-crisis. 
  3. BAMB (Buildings as Material Banks). Materials Passports — Best Practice. Brussels: BAMB / EPEA / SundaHus, February 2019. https://www.bamb2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/BAMB_MaterialsPassports_BestPractice.pdf.
  4. European Commission, CORDIS. "Buildings as Material Banks: Integrating Materials Passports with Reversible Building Design to Optimise Circular Industrial Value Chains (BAMB)." Horizon 2020 Project ID 642384, 2015–2019. https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/642384 and https://www.bamb2020.eu.
  5. European Union. Regulation (EU) 2024/3110 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2024 Laying Down Harmonised Rules for the Marketing of Construction Products and Repealing Regulation (EU) No 305/2011. Official Journal of the European Union, December 18, 2024. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/3110/oj/eng.
  6. Madaster. "Introducing Madaster's Digital Product Passport (DPP)." Madaster, 2025. https://madaster.com/inspiration/introducing-madasters-digital-product-passport-dpp/. 
  7. Wenture. "Digital Product Passports for Manufacturers — EU Guide 2026." Wenture.io, 2026. https://wenture.io/en/digital-product-passport-manufacturers-eu/.