{"id":18073,"date":"2024-05-30T23:09:20","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T13:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/?p=18073"},"modified":"2024-10-21T20:19:20","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T10:19:20","slug":"faster-greener-canadas-top-bank-says-yes-to-mass-timber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/faster-greener-canadas-top-bank-says-yes-to-mass-timber\/","title":{"rendered":"Faster & Greener: Canada’s Top Bank Says ‘Yes’ to Mass Timber"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mass timber made up just 1% of North American building materials in 2022<\/a>, but that is changing…and fast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month<\/a>, Wood Central reported that mid-rise and high-rise buildings made from cross-laminated timber and glulam are now mainstream across the United States, with Canada pushing to expand plants from B.C.<\/a>\u00a0to Alberta<\/a> and Ontario<\/a>\u00a0to Nova Scotia<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The demand is extremely high for mass timber now,” according to Frank Gannon, Western Archrib’s director of stakeholder engagement, who spoke to CBC News inside the company’s new 155,000-square-foot facility, now struggling to keep up with orders.<\/a> “We are filling capacity slots about ten months out \u2014 so yes, the phone’s ringing off the hook.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, a report by the Royal Bank of Canada<\/a> (RBA), more than 660 mass timber projects (up to the end of 2022) are rising across Canada – almost double the number rising across the U.S. until that point. And of those out of the ground or in the pipeline, 87% of projects are clustered around the populated centres of B.C., Ontario and Quebec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Source: RBC Climate Action Institute, Mantle Developments, 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, the RBA argues that, with the correct policy settings, a pivot to prioritising mass timber construction over steel and concrete will not only cut Canada’s total emissions by 10% over the next seven years but will also unlock a CA $1 billion mass timber industry, “with a share of this growth anticipated to flow to Indigenous communities.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Canada is responding. <\/h6>\n\n\n\n

In April<\/a>, Wood Central reported that the Canadian federal government and the Ontario and British Columbian provincial governments are changing building codes to allow mass timber buildings to rise 12-storey (nationally) and 18-storey (in both provinces).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current federal tracking<\/a> shows mass timber is most commonly used in institutional buildings, including schools<\/a> and community centres<\/a>. However, as more research has emerged attesting to the fire safety of tall wood structures<\/a>, recent changes to building codes have opened the door to higher buildings –  including a 31-storey mixed-use building before Toronto planning authorities.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"If
If approved, the 31-storey cross-laminated timber building would be Canada’s tallest hybrid timber building and one of the largest anywhere in the world. (Image Credit: Icon Architects dated 2022)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“CLT is the transformational material for tall buildings,” Brian Merwin, the senior vice president with Mercer Mass Timbers, said, adding that most of the material used in high-rises is for the floors. “[It’s] sort of filled that missing gap to get us to where we are today.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Combined with glulam beams and columns, cross-laminated timber floors and walls can offer a viable alternative to traditional steel-and-concrete building systems. A recent U.S. study<\/a> demonstrated that switching out steel and replacing it with CLT floors, glulam beams, and columns made buildings 35% lighter, emitted 40% less carbon, and used substantially less concrete in the foundations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faster and lighter<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

According to Robert Malczyk, a structural engineer and principal at Vancouver Structural Engineering, mass timber carries several advantages over concrete. It’s faster to work with than concrete, he told CBC, because panels can be prefabricated off-site and assembled on-site. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Mr Malczyk speaks from experience – adding that his own fire-storey Vancouver office, made from mass timber, was erected in just 12 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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