Mass Timber | Tag (page 2)

Expanding the Architectural Prospects of Timber in Its Natural Form

September 08, 2023

Timber has been a popular source of construction material for thousands of years. Through sawing, milling, and other engineered wood conversion processes, various wood forms have been created and applied in products, furniture, and architecture. However, these processes can sometimes alter the basic lines of wood structure. The stems can be split, grain patterns changed, and some woods, such as oak and cedar, are easily reduced while others can become intractable. This led to the exploration of whole timber forms in ancient structures, such as log cabins, which layered timber in different cross-sections to form home profiles. Through design, the use of trunks or branches of trees in their entirety can accentuate their innate mechanical properties for structural sustainability. Although these practices are fairly absent in contemporary building techniques, new technological innovations expand the prospects of timber construction in architecture.

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Henning Larsen Wins Competition to Design Mass Timber Campus for University of the Faroe Islands

July 25, 2023

Henning Larsen Architects has just won the competition to design a new university campus building in Torshvan, Faroe Islands. The 8000m2 campus is primarily inspired by the Faroese settlements and indigenous lands, drawing on various ancient methodologies of building for extreme weather conditions. The new design “extends the comfortable outdoor season by 150 days each year,” transforming the campus into an ideal space for learning.

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The Meteoric Rise of Cross-Laminated Timber Construction: 50 Projects that Use Engineered-Wood Architecture

May 27, 2023

Timber is a natural, renewable material, easy to fabricate, and with low-carbon emissions. As a construction material, however, when put under enough directional force along its grain, sawn timber is structurally unstable, so deemed unsuitable under higher loads. In comparison, the manufacture of cross-laminated timber (CLT) involves simply gluing multiple layers of timber together at right angles. By crossing the direction of the grains, CLT achieves a far higher level of structural rigidity along both axes. CLT boards start with a minimum of three layers but can be strengthened further with the addition of more. Simply put, due to the complex physics involved in the perpendicular lamination, the strength of CLT board is similar to that of reinforced concrete, and has proven performance under seismic forces.

So what’s new? Wood’s been around for long enough now, and we’ve been using it as a building material for centuries. Surely this isn’t the first time someone’s realized it gets stronger the more you use it? Well… as you’d expect, the changing popularity of cross-laminated timber in construction does coincide with a greater understanding and focus on environmental causes, but the relationship hasn’t always been positive.

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What Is Mass Timber?

May 22, 2023

Wood is the concrete of the future. As timber construction becomes increasingly popular, you have probably heard this phrase. However, we are not talking about traditional construction techniques using timber, but rather about this well-known material combined with cutting-edge technology.

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First-Ever Earthquake Simulation in a 10-Story Mass Timber Building

May 16, 2023

When it comes to seismic resistance, there are a number of myths that question the ability of wood to adequately perform in the event of an earthquake. However, its ductility allows it to deform plastically without breaking, absorbing and dissipating the energy generated by movement and vibration. Furthermore, unlike steel or concrete, wood is a lightweight material with a good strength-to-weight ratio, enabling it to withstand seismic forces without adding excessive load to the construction. This has been extensively verified in smaller-scale structures around the world, but how does a high-rise mass timber building behave in the face of an earthquake?

To dispel doubts, the Tallwood Project recently erected a 10-story building made of cross-laminated timber (CLT) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). The structure was tested on a shake table that simulated the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles, magnitude 6.7, and the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan, magnitude 7.7.

Taking on California's First Mass Timber Building

January 31, 2023

Mass timber is emerging all across North America. Beyond the benefits of natural materials and visible structures, the capabilities of industrialized offsite construction are beginning to change the model of delivery for an increasing range of buildings. When a California owner-developer proposed the first mass timber building in the state, they chose the experience, scope, and qualifications carefully, and the entire mass timber package was delivered on a train from Quebec, Canada.

Latin America’s First High-rise Building in Cross Laminated Timber is Built in Chilean Patagonia

November 29, 2022

Urbanization and the evolution of modern cities have led to the development of high-rise building constructions, but what is the real environmental impact of these buildings? Traditionally designed with concrete as the main structural material, their construction implies an increase of CO2 emissions released into the atmosphere, air pollution and a rise in energy and water consumption. These consequences call for the development of new sustainable strategies outside of the industry’s comfort zone, such as the incorporation of wood as a structural element. Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) has emerged as a new structural strategy that Chilean architects have begun to incorporate into the country’s architecture, adapted to local conditions and norms.

The ‘Tamango Project’ by Tallwood architects is an example of the challenges and opportunities of wood construction in the country and the region, as it might potentially be the first 12-storey building with an engineered timber structure. Changing the traditional construction paradigms of the area, Tamango represents a step into sustainable solutions that follow an integrated design process through all the stages of an architectural project.

Mass Timber Seizes its Moment: The LEVER Architecture Experience

August 19, 2021 | Sponsored Content

The family of products that encompass mass timber –including Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT), Glue-Laminated Timber (Glulam), and Mass Plywood– is increasingly becoming a viable construction alternative for the AEC industry. Timber has been a structural material for thousands of years, but these engineered wood products have broadened the field of options and provided a solid basis for architectural designers to work with, expanding upon their range of materials and finishes.

Is Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) the Concrete of the Future?

August 19, 2019

Concrete, an essential building material, has for decades offered us the possibility of shaping our cities quickly and effectively, allowing them to rapidly expand into urban peripheries and reach heights previously unimagined by mankind. Today, new timber technologies are beginning to deliver similar opportunities – and even superior ones – through materials like Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT).

To better understand the properties and benefits of CLT, we talked with Jorge Calderón, Industrial Designer and CRULAMM Manager. He discusses some of the promising opportunities that CLT could provide architecture in the future.

Oregon Becomes the First State to Legalize Mass Timber High Rises

August 17, 2018

Oregon has become the first state in the U.S. to allow timber buildings to rise higher than six stories without special consideration. The recent addendum to the state's building code is the result of Oregon’s statewide alternate method (SAM), a program that allows for alternate building techniques to be used after an advisory council has approved the “technical and scientific facts of the proposed alternate method.” The decision stands as a precedent for future construction across the United States.

MIT's Mass Timber Longhouse Shows a Technology-Driven Approach to Sustainable Design

July 19, 2018

MIT Mass Timber Design, a cross-disciplinary design workshop at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have developed a building prototype that aims to tackle the world’s growing energy crisis, “one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century.” Extensively using the wood-based building design and construction technology mass timber - a method growing in popularity within North America - the project utilizes the “efficiency, speed, precision and versatility” of prefabricated timber construction elements to realize a multi-functional, sustainable building. The longhouse typology, often one of the first permanent structures of a civilization, is a common across the world, but in adapting its construction to face modern-day issues, the team hopes to create a space that “builds upon this rich cultural icon.”

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Open Call: Maine Mass Timber Design Competition

July 17, 2018

2018 MAINE MASS TIMBER DESIGN COMPETITION

This year’s Maine Mass Timber Design Competition is intended to generate design ideas and test implementation of an emerging technology that hold specific promise for the state economy.

DESIGN ABSTRACT

Remote Mass Timber Wilderness Lodge - Open Ideas Competition

Maine Huts & Trails maintains a network of backcountry trails and remote wilderness lodges woven through the woods and mountains of western Maine that provide a unique opportunity to explore and discover this beautiful region. The goal of this year’s competition is to study and develop a design concepts for a new hut on a established backcountry site, as

Why Stadiums Made of Wood Could Be the Next Big Innovation in Sports Architecture

July 10, 2018

This article was originally published by Autodesk's Redshift publication as "Could Modular Wood Stadium Construction Be a Game Changer?"

Imagine a sports stadium that could expand and contract with its fan base and team’s fortunes, one that could pick up and move to greener (and more lucrative) pastures.

Given team owners’ history of playing fans against each other, making stadiums more mobile isn’t likely to give pennant-wavers a sense of security, but the concept is an incredible breakthrough for building technology. Endlessly modular and made of ultralow-impact mass timber, this vision of low-carbon construction, conceived by engineered-wood manufacturer Rubner Holzbau and prefabricated stadium designer Bear Stadiums, could soon materialize at a soccer pitch near you.

The Benefits of Mass Timber Building on Show at AIA Conference on Architecture 2018

June 22, 2018

Wood as a building material is experiencing a bit of a renaissance. Though elemental and deceivingly simple, applied technology has transformed the building material. If you have questions about how to choose and use wood, Think Wood's mission is to provide access to the expanding pool of research and information.

In support of this year’s AIA theme, Blueprint for Better Cities, Think Wood is at the AIA Conference on Architecture to share research and resources on the benefits of wood and how it offers better solutions for the communities where we work, live and play. If you're at the conference be sure to stop by the Wood Pavilion at booth 757. If you can't make but are interested in learning more, read on to see the benefits of wood.