Buildings of the Future Differ from Science Fictions Dreams
By: Lydia Wandmacher
In classic science fiction, buildings are imagined as towering skyscrapers made of either glass-like materials or perhaps something that has not yet been developed. A recent push for the buildings of the future goes in the opposite direction, however: wood. Although it seems like a regression rather than a forward move, “mass timber” has been gaining traction as building material for multiple reasons. Buildings designed with mass timber are faster to build, resulting in overall cheaper costs, which is one big lure. The other main push towards mass timber is the environmental aspects of it. Mass timber, when being constructed, creates less waste and less greenhouse gas emissions than traditional building materials. Around 11% of the global carbon footprint is estimated to be related to the materials that make up buildings, but the wood in mass timber stores any carbon dioxide the trees had contained, keeping it out of the atmosphere.
Despite quaint conceptions of traditional wood buildings, buildings made with mass timber are designed from massive sheets of specially pressed planks to create very modern and innovative designs. Although this style may integrate better into modern cities than old-fashioned cabins, it does not ameliorate many people’s biggest fear about return to wood buildings, which is raging fires. Some studies have shown, however, that mass timber can actually be resistant to burning for two hours. Other main worries include whether harvesting wood is truly sustainable, despite companies’ claims that it is entirely harvested from sustainable forests, and whether a building of wood can hold up in the wind and other weather the same way that steel is able to withstand it.
It’s not just fear preventing a mass timber mass takeover. Building Codes preventing large wooden buildings were enacted in response to safety fears, and it isn’t always easy to change these. While the International Building Code has changed to allow wood buildings up to about 18 stories high, the US Code is not predicted to adopt these changes until 2021. A big influence on the shifting codes has been the success of the fire tests, showing that mass timber is not as big of a fire fear as initially believed. In fact, mass timber can actually have counterintuitive effects on fire-heavy states, such as in Washington or California. In Washington state, the wood used to create mass timber comes from low-quality trees removed in forest thinning processes, which creates healthier forests with a lower risk of catching on fire. Although there may still be fears about if these buildings will burn faster if caught in a wildfire, lowering the risk of wildfires is beneficial all around. A similar solution has been implemented in California to create healthier forests, reduce the risk of wildfires, and help fill the housing shortage with mass timber buildings. Shifting building codes would allow more mass timber buildings to be built, which seems to be a brilliant solution to a majority of problems. However, a few positive studies and a lack of negative studies in a relatively new area should not paint mass timber as being faultless. There has only been one major fire study and it labeled mass timber products as fire-resistant for only a couple hours. Also, although mass timber may provide use for wood removed in forest thinning projects, reducing the risk of wildfires does not eliminate the risk. Mass timber still burns more than steel, so any proposed change to codes has to also include additional measures to ensure that giant wooden buildings won’t succumb to fire easily. There are a lot of proposals about mass timber going on, and a fair risk evaluation should be considered, but building codes should not be stuck in the past and prevent the development of an environmentally friendly building option.