Green Building with Mass Timber

As architects look ahead to the future, there are many environmental issues that are beginning to play a big role in how we design. It is becoming increasingly important to acknowledge the impact the built environment has on our changing climate; these day-to-day decisions we as architects and designers make have a far-reaching impact.

Building Green

One way we can reduce the carbon footprint of our buildings is to make informed decisions about the materials that are used in construction. Ongoing research and studies have shown mass timber construction has a smaller environmental footprint than traditional building materials; Mass Timber refers to materials made up of engineered wood products like solid wood panels, columns, or beams designed for high strength while being light in weight. Wood as a building material offers two main advantages when compared to alternative methods like concrete and steel: harvesting wood is less carbon intensive than extracting energy intensive materials from the ground, and timber buildings store carbon that would otherwise be emitted back into the atmosphere.

 The two most common questions about mass timer building relate to deforestation and fire resistance. You may presume structures completely out of wood would not be fireproof and would lead to deforestation, however, the opposite is true!

Fire resistance: Mass timber elements such as glulam beams and CLT slabs have been rigorously tested for their fire resistance properties. Mass timber products char at a very predictable rate (an hour and 6 minutes over building code requirements) and because they char on the outside, the char on heavy timber beams and columns actually creates a protective layer over the interior wood. Mass Timber’s density also doesn’t allow for sufficient heat to cause a flame.

Deforestation: Although counterintuitive, the demand for forest products leads to more forests. This is evident when a forest becomes is profitable; it will in turn reduce the amount of forest land that would otherwise be developed for other uses. Many trees harvested for mass timber construction are procured with sustainable methods and from sustainably managed forests (like those infected with pine beetle and spruce budworm that can no longer benefit their ecosystems).

Our Project

The Chung Tai Zen Center project in South Boulder uses multiple types of mass timber products within its structure. The Zen Center utilizes long-span glulam beams combined with an exposed CLT roof deck to give its guests the impression of a “floating roof” in the Meditation Hall and Dining Halls.  This exposed mass timber structure is also meant to evoke an overhead forest canopy, ideal for natural serenity and Buddhist meditation. The mass timber glulam beams and CLT deck are supported by a combination of hidden steel columns and exposed hybrid glulam and steel columns. 

With these materials, we were able to build The Chung Tai Zen Center sustainably. It takes only 1 minute for North American forests to collectively grow the amount of wood used in this project. As mentioned before, the more demand for wood products there is, the better protected and managed our forests will become. In terms of carbon emissions, the use of CLT in the Zen Center alone avoided 457 metric tons of CO2 emissions, equivalent to keeping 411 cars off the road for a year.

Mass timber will continue to grow in its role in the construction industry, much like a tree grows in the forest.  Sopher Sparn Architects is committed to sustainability and strives to incorporate more mass timber use into our projects. Mass timber is a strong, low carbon alternative to concrete and steel, with a smaller carbon footprint. It’s changing how we designers think about buildings and inspiring innovation in the industry.