Video Presentations: Tall Timber Buildings: Sustainability & Performance in a Post-Pandemic World

Ricky McLain
Senior Technical Director, Tall Wood
WoodWorks,

In their role as shapers of the built environment, developers and design teams often have the opportunity—some would say responsibility—to address societal issues through their work. While the future of high-rise buildings has been questioned for a post-pandemic world, the urgent need for housing density remains undiminished, as does the equally urgent need to respond to the climate crisis by reducing and offsetting carbon emissions. The benefits of timber from a carbon footprint perspective are well documented. Wood products typically require less embodied energy to manufacture than other building materials and substituting wood for fossil fuel-intensive materials can be a way to avoid greenhouse gas emissions. Wood also stores carbon absorbed by the trees while growing, keeping it out of the atmosphere for the building’s lifetime—longer if the wood is then reclaimed and re-used. High-rise construction may have been relatively unchanged for the past 100+ years, but there is global precedent for tall mass timber buildings, and a growing number of projects. The potential of high-rise mass timber projects is discussed, touching on aspects of mass timber’s value proposition that are particularly resonant in the context of current construction and market realities, sustainability, potential effects on forest health and rural economies, and new U.S. code provisions that allow wood buildings up to 18 stories. With an emphasis on projects built and in design, design topics that are crucial to realizing a successful mass timber building—including fire resistance, structural layout, connections and details, occupant comfort, cost optimization, building enclosure, and prefabrication—are also introduced and discussed.