CREE Buildings is a construction technology company that grew out of Austria’s Rhomberg Group and is best known for a standardized timber‑hybrid building system aimed at multi‑storey projects. Founded in 2010 by engineer and entrepreneur Hubert Rhomberg, the firm is headquartered in Dornbirn, western Austria, and operates through a network of international partners across Europe, Asia and North America.
The company’s core product is the CREE System, a modular timber‑concrete hybrid structure based on prefabricated wall, floor and column elements. These components are manufactured off site and assembled quickly on site, which shortens construction time and reduces disruption compared with conventional methods. CREE positions itself less as a general contractor and more as a technology and knowledge provider: it licenses its system, trains partners and coordinates a digital platform intended to standardise design and construction processes.
CREE’s history is closely tied to prototype projects. LifeCycle Tower One in Dornbirn, completed in 2012, was an early flagship: an eight‑storey office building whose shell was erected in eight days and used as a demonstrator for serial timber‑hybrid construction. In Germany, CREE supplied the structural system for EDGE Suedkreuz in Berlin, an office complex whose larger “Carré” building is regarded as the largest single hybrid‑timber building in the country. Internationally, the system has been applied to projects such as Eunoia Junior College in Singapore.
Today, CREE’s activities span system development, design support, partner qualification and project consulting, with a small core team in Austria and an extended network of licensed partners delivering local projects.