My fundamental goal is to teach people to build better - Marius Șoflete, Creative Engineering

From the very first articles about wooden houses, passive houses and energy efficiency in construction, we constantly came across two names: Marius Șoflete and Creative Engineering. The precise, intense way of conveying information, the simple and direct language that makes even those less initiated in the field of construction understand principles, phenomena and technical processes immediately attracted us. Marius Șoflete came with a new approach, totally different from what we had seen before. In addition to consistent information on how to build, building materials and modern technologies, he came with a holistic approach to the field, linking design, with architecture, construction, installations and the end client. This new approach is put into practice through Inginerie Creativă, the design office set up by Marius in 2013, and joined in 2017 by Octav Timu and Cătălin Caraza, friends since college.

It is all based on his passion for the construction field, especially wood construction, and on the incredible experience gained in a very short time. Marius has an overflowing energy and incredible work power. Together with his colleagues from Creative Engineering (a team that has grown and is looking for new colleagues) he works passionately in the office and on the building sites, continuing to be an important source of information for professionals, enthusiasts and future home owners.

We spent two days at Creative Engineering trying to understand where their passion comes from, what problems they face, how they want to change the construction field, where they get so much energy and work power. Because Marius Șoflete, soflete.ro and Creative Engineering means design, on-site assistance, courses in construction and architecture faculties, courses on passive houses and energy efficiency together with the Romanian Order of Architects (OAR) and INCERC - Institute for Research in Construction, workshops in factories, informative material for the website, filming in factories and on construction sites.

Review of Wood (RdL): What it means soflete.ro  as a team, as a business strategy. How does it combine with Creative Engineering?

Marius Șoflete: Soflete.ro is a spin off of Creative Engineering. It spun out of the Creative Engineering office formed in 2013 and is named after me because it is based on my own personal experience and expertise in the construction industry. I've had a wealth of experience in a very short space of time, very condensed and very varied. From PRISPA, the first solar house project made in Romania to participate in an international solar house competition (Solar Decathlon Europe(n.r.), the first certified passive wooden house project, the first authorized straw bale house, the first straw bale school or the wooden mountain refuge in Călțun, built by helicopter. Initially I spoke about these projects in limited circles, then I started to give courses, through the Romanian Order of Architects (OAR), on timber construction and energy efficiency, all based on practical and applied experience. Going from one project to another and talking about it, repeating the speeches over and over again, I decided to make them on video, as it is easier to talk about them.

Blog initiative (soflete.ro(n.r.), which effectively started in February 2019, was Dariushe was the catalyst in the whole thing. We had the office together in Cluj, the physical office, we didn't work together, he was with his firm, he's an architect, I was with my engineering office. It was the same way we work here (in Bucharest). The office means that 2-3 companies get a space where we work together. In this job you isolate yourself, you stick to the computer and you don't interact with anyone, we end up having a contest in the evening to see who leaves the office last. Darius and I used to get caught in the office at 2-3 at night, and he kept bugging me that he wanted to film everything I was explaining and telling him about the projects he was working on.

Soflete.ro effectively started as a spin off, out of a desire to communicate my experience, but also to bring clarity and quality information to the construction process. I was involved in the design, but I was also involved in the execution, I was very much with the beneficiary. In the first years of design, especially in the first projects, I was also emotionally involved, beyond the job description, helping people to bring their house to completion. I also had a number of experiences in this area, I saw what people go through, from the design side, to the execution, operational issues, cost issues and so on. I was keen to talk about this experience: here is what you have to do, what stages you have to go through, what you have to watch out for. Because when you build a house or when you buy a house you need several tens, even hundreds of thousands of euros and that involves a lot of emotional stress.

Although Marius and his team are construction engineers, the approach to the themes on soflete.ro is not only from this point of view. It comes with the big picture. The architect, the material supplier, the builder and the beneficiary being included in the same picture.

In this whole series of courses that I've done and through interacting with over 1000 designers in the courses, I've also seen through the design teams problems, frustrations, misunderstandings, misunderstandings, misunderstandings. I said OK, these need to be communicated in plain language, in a language where people understand what we do. Not us as a design office, but us as a guild, the designers' guild. I've been involved in other projects and I've seen that in specialized circles they communicate in a closed circle. Architects do annuals and biennials, engineers do super technical conferences that only engineers can understand. You go to building material fairs, builders only communicate among themselves. And in all this there's someone else, the beneficiary. The vast majority of the beneficiaries I have interacted with over the last 4 years are self-taught. They are people who are searching, reading, researching and the discussions with them were almost like professional to professional, I didn't have to convince anybody, I just confirmed. I also noticed this need for documentation, information before starting. People who do their own house are somehow around my age, they are often entrepreneurs, they don't buy without researching. Besides, we live in a hyper-informational age where anything you want you can find out a click away. But how do you know if the information you find is good!

All of this catalyzed the project that was to be a construction communication platform and the most easily found name connected with me. Because the website is very much my vision, because I have also had the opportunity to be involved in challenging and innovative projects in an extremely short time. I started by recounting some of the projects and some of the problems encountered. We always talked about problems and solutions: how to waterproof correctly, how to seal correctly. In addition, I also started telling part of the course I was teaching. And out of every situation, problem, case I made a story. Because I couldn't get everywhere I was needed I started doing a series of online courses. Courses organized through OAR. I brought passive house designers courses to the country. We got a sponsorship, translated it into Romanian with our own money and gave it to the OAR which is now in charge of the course. Soflete.ro is a communication and information platform in construction and a project that I like more and more.

RdL: Let's talk about Creative Engineering. How does Creative Engineering combine with șoflete.ro? What is actually Creative Engineering?

It's a design office, oriented towards structures and very much towards timber structures. I think at the moment we're the largest design office, predominantly dedicated to timber structures. We are a construction engineering design office. In 2013, after my experience in PRISPA, I tried to work in other offices, but I felt that I couldn't find my place, so I went out on my own as a PFA. I had a few work experiences, realized what it was all about, and then partnered with Cătălin și with Octavcollege classmates, roommates and "suffering" at Prispa.

After PRISPA, we all went all over the place, we didn't know each other for about 6 months. We had been together too long, it was a hard project and we needed a break. After they finished college - they are a year younger than me - Octav and Cătălin worked for a year and a half to gain experience. Then more and more projects started coming to me and I would give them one a weekend until I couldn't cope anymore. And that's when I said "guys, we have 2 choices, either we partner or we partner". That's how Creative Engineering was born, in 2017, in its current form, legally and factually.

The Solar Decathlon experience underpins Creative Engineering as a philosophy. We went to construction school. On the diploma it says construction engineer or structural engineer, we were only supposed to do structures. But in this competition (Solar Decathlon) working on the structural side was only 10% of the project, 90% was something else - because we did everything from models to presentations, fundraising, communication, research, etc. Going into this project we could see a holistic construction project, meaning we went from the structural area to the technical design area. Look, for example, we made the first certified passive house in Romania, EvoHouse in Cluj. If you talk about passive house, you're talking about building physics, that is, the interaction of the house with water, vapor, moisture, air, fire, wind and all the other forces and energies. As a structural engineer, we only deal with some of the forces. The others, the technical stuff, who actually manages them? That's how we started to see the interactions between materials and other situations that were basically not in the job description. 

Creative Engineering is the office that deals with innovative solutions in construction. Our role is not to say that it can't be done, but to work hard to find solutions for projects and we already have a portfolio of projects on wooden structures that are innovative, unique for Romania. We have greatly developed this market, the technology CLT and technology timber frame.

RdL: It's basically your first business experience.

Yes, it is the first business experience. You can be a very good engineer, but that doesn't make you a good entrepreneur. It's something they don't teach in schools. In the beginning you don't really know how to sell yourself or organize yourself financially. The big mistake that an entrepreneur makes, especially at the beginning, is to think that the money that comes in is his. Fatal mistake, been there, still paying for that mistake. But after the mistake of having a sole proprietorship, I turned to financial advisors and specialists and managed to calibrate the business strategy as well.

RdL: How has Creative Engineering evolved?

We started in 2013 with works coming through Prispa, even the first 5 clients were people directly involved in this project, from whom, one by one, through direct recommendations, projects kept coming, but with quite a lot of challenges - straw bale house, wooden houses, wooden gym, straw bale school, passive houses on wooden structure. Since 2016 I stopped coping alone and started to collaborate with Catalin and Octav, who were working elsewhere at the time. From 2017 came a flurry of projects and we've been growing ever since. After EvoHouse came the second passive house, then the Buhnici house which brought us visibility, gave us a lot of exposure. It was not something we were looking for, it just happened. The Buhnici House was for me the project through which I was able to integrate in Romania all the 10 principles I learned at Decathlon.

Then more and more projects started to come. We turned to timber construction after we did the first CLT construction in the country. Before us, only Silvania had built a CLT construction - the company's office in 2013 - but that was designed by Germans. But we did the first construction with a project entirely designed by us - a more complex project in Timișoara.

Now, basically, Creative Engineering means 6 engineers, 2 architects and an office manager, who is an architect and who takes care of all the organizational side, plus a network of engineering collaborators all over the country.

RdL: Are you involved in Creative Engineering and soflete.ro. Is there anything else?

I'm still a trainer attached to the OAR with whom I teach 3 courses: wooden structures course, energy compliance course and passive houses course. I teach from time to time at the Institute for Research in Construction, a passive house craftsmen course for the qualification of craftsmen and I am now working on an online courses platform as well as on several real estate development projects.

RdL: The construction of wooden houses in Romania has gained more momentum in recent years, although many houses in Europe are made by Romanian builders. I think you have a great merit in promoting timber construction in Romania. How did it all start?

I was at one point on a tour of just about every house factory in the country - Dimmer, Ergio, Doxar, Tehnicas, Rustic, Timber Craft. They were all complaining that they couldn't sell domestically, even though they wanted to. Not because there was no market, but because people didn't know about them, there was no communication. They all had wood technology, they were working to German standards, and they said that if they didn't do it that way, if they didn't meet all the requirements of the European market, they risked not getting their bills paid. Doxar said he was doing it himself leak test to make sure his bills get paid. There is European-level technology in the country and yet all the houses were going for export. Why not work for the locals?

801TPTP3T of the country's timber is exported. We also have a wood trauma. Everybody wants wood-burning fireplaces, to burn it, but when it comes to logging, it's burning. And they're right, because we have a problem. We export wood cheap. I want to adjust the perception of the whole industry. If wood as a product is treated as a premium material and valued as such, then it will also be treated as a premium resource. I think there can be a mechanism to regulate timber in the country. Romania exports wood badly. Why sell it for 120 euro m³ for formwork in China or Dubai, when I can sell it for 400-500 euro/m³ and add value to it? We use wood more efficiently, we earn more, we end up using less wood, and we take care of the resource. Which is a fantastic resource, I think it's going to reach a very high value soon. And if I sell it at a high price, I can return some of it for afforestation and sustainable logging programs.

RdL: Creative Engineering is already a well-known, sought-after and appreciated design office. But there is also a perception that it is more expensive.

We deliver performance. Take, for example, the Oradea project (CLT company headquarters). We made the offer, comfortable for us at the time, and the beneficiary looked at it and said "I'll give you 50% extra, but I want this project to come out on top. I want you to prioritize and give priority and exclusivity in the office and when you're needed, be there." When we were working intensely on the design and had to be with the architectural team, to be more efficient we got in the car and drove to Oradea and stayed there with them until the job was done in a timely manner. And we delivered. When it was needed, we went to the factory, we stressed the factory people so much that they swore at us and we delivered. We were the only ones who delivered on time. They gave us the right not to pay the others if we didn't give the technical OK. We took the carpentry down three times. It wasn't airtight, down! They called the representative of the beneficiary to the site. When the representative came he asked what we said. "They said to take them down. - Then take them down."

Our projects are above and beyond what is required. Everything is perfect, technically, functionally. We have installation manuals. We work 5-7 times harder than the average design office. We deliver quality, we have never delivered below the quality standards that we knew we had to deliver. There have been cases when we have told the client that we are not happy with the design solution, to give us another 2 months. And the client told us that he was happy with that. Because a complete and well-done design can save you a lot of errors, mistakes and especially unexpected costs on a construction site, where it is much harder to backtrack than in the office. There have been situations where I have gained from mistakes made by others. We've reviewed projects and optimized them, we've given solutions so that people have made important savings. And we were paid a percentage of the savings. Because the man was left with money in his pocket.

The office is growing with the visibility of the channel soflete.ro, but also the reliability and the complete and correct technical information provided. We still need good engineers and one of the reasons why I started teaching in faculties is to find them. 

RdL: Do you only do projects for timber construction?

No, we don't only design with wood, but because of our experience we are often called on building sites to assist with wood projects. Wood is a very sensitive material and you design it the way you design it, but if something goes bubbling on site, it's much worse. That's why I've spent a lot of time on wood sites. We don't only do projects on wood, we also do projects on concrete or brick, but we don't necessarily pride ourselves on that. It's just that we're in high demand on wood projects. We've done carbon fiber reinforcements and polymer grids, we've done metal micropile screw foundations. In addition to wood structures, we've done masonry and metal structures. Metal structures are also very challenging.

Engineering is materials science. You have to know how to optimize and make the best use of resources. That's why we fell in love with CLT. It's not like concrete walls, where I have to make them all 10 inches thick because I can't pour less. With CLT, if this wall is 6 tons and 2 tons are walking on it, I can make it 6 tons, if this one is 10 tons, I can make it 8 tons, this one has 20 tons on it, I can make it 12 tons and so on, piece by piece. In concrete, I have to make them all 25. Then I put the reinforcement in it because it has to have minimum reinforcement, then the cracking occurs. Put some more reinforcement in for cracking, then you drop your shear strength, put some more reinforcement in for shear strength, then add some more reinforcement for bending moment because you have to have maximum bending and shear capacity and so on. And you can't fit your concrete over rebar, over rebar, over rebar, over other rebar. You also have a coefficient of errors because it's pouring badly, because it's raining, because the concrete isn't mixing well, or whatever. And you don't feel that it's engineering, that you can work challenging with concrete. You can do interesting things with concrete, but not in Romania, with the existing seismic activity. You have heavy structures, the concrete is heavy, the seismic force is directly proportional to the mass of the building, and the material immediately gets screwed up. If you put more material to make it stronger, the house becomes heavier and the seismic force effect even greater. It's not okay and somewhere you have to cut that process. Where do you cut it off? You change the material.

CLT is ok also because in cities you are limited by space, by neighbors, by law. By building with it you can reduce the size of the walls and gain useful space. For example, in one of the projects we reduced the walls on all the contours on which we could build, thus gaining a total of 40 square meters of usable space in relation to the same building surface area allowed by the urban planning. 

RdL: Why do you put so much emphasis on information?

My fundamental aim is to teach people to build better. There are at least 25,000 building permits a year, there are at least 10,000 houses being built a year. Our quality of life is influenced by the environment we live in. And we live 801TPTP3T of our time in dwellings: offices, schools, nurseries and most of all, housing. And they are very often ugly and poorly made. We shut ourselves in a lot because of where we live. My philosophy is to help people the best I know how, which is to help them build better. When you build a house you're making a decision that affects your whole life. You kill your nerves for 2-5 years when you build the house. If it doesn't turn out well, if there are no conditions, people are sad and I don't like to see sad people.

I don't want to do projects that are repetitive or don't add value, which is why I've gotten into educating others. I want to do courses and tell them: you all have the capacity to deliver performance, then deliver performance. I have been and am willing to do courses with manufacturers or suppliers to actually train their people. I've had cases with suppliers who said they want in-house courses for sales people to understand the products in terms of the physics, the mechanics of how they integrate into construction. There were people who were selling building products and they didn't know why they were selling them, what they were good for. They didn't know how to argue, why you can put the material in one place or why you can't put it in one place.

RdL: Where do you see yourself in the near future, where do you want to go?

As a design office we want to be a reference office in construction. We want to be in the top 5 design and engineering offices in the country and a reference office in timber construction. We want to be the office that brings innovation in construction in Romania. We made the first construction on CLT in the country, we turned it into a mass product, we developed timber frame constructions, we made the first houses on metal screw foundation, we made the first buildings on insulating glass foam gravel foundations. And at the blog level, I want to be the leading voice in construction, the one who sets the tone. I know, it sounds unassuming and I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I simply saw that there is a lack of credibility in the market and accurate information.

And all this leads to my dream of late - a construction academy. An academy like I saw in Germany, a place where if you want to be an architect, carpenter, joiner, builder, tradesman, carpenter, window fitter, window man, you can come and get your information from one place. That is my dream.

In the middle of them being in Creative Engineering, I asked them why I should build a wooden house. There was a brief moment of wondering pause, as if they were all wondering if I had understood something from meeting them. Because it's a sustainable way of building, came a timid reply. I forced the note and told them that maybe I don't care what will be after me, if my grandchildren will have forests, clean air and a pleasant living environment in my home. Then you don't deserve a wooden house - the answer fell out. An answer that's echoed in my head long after I left. Yes, we don't deserve a wooden house if we don't care about what will be after us, if we don't care about building well and correctly, if we don't care about having a house that makes us happy. Because a wooden house is a premium product.