Mass Timber

Designing a Low-Carbon Future with Mass Timber

The challenge is indisputable: The building sector accounts for more than 40% of carbon dioxide emissions, a staggering statistic by itself, but even more significant when factoring in the estimated 2.5 trillion square feet of new building stock that will be built in the next 30 years — adding the equivalent of Paris to the planet every single week.

As we look for ways to reduce these impacts, we’re embracing new methods of using existing materials — especially those that are renewable like mass timber. Use of this inexpensive, renewable resource in construction offers substantial benefits: it sequesters carbon, offers the ability to harvest forests in a way that promotes forest health, and can help to rebuild timber and wood product manufacturing industries and revitalize small communities. It’s also resilient, cost-effective, as strong as steel and concrete, and satisfies our need for biophilic connections.

Explore why the use of mass timber is on the rise — and how with the passage of a number of tall mass timber code changes by the International Code Council, the increasing interest in and applications for mass timber construction for commercial markets is destined to grow even further.

Mass Timber in Healthcare

Although mass timber has been a rarity in healthcare, the new Quinte Health Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital — the first unencapsulated all-mass timber hospital in North America — is shifting that trend.

Rise of Mass Timber in Healthcare Design

Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital

The Quinte Health Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital in Picton, Ontario, Canada, will be the first acute care hospital in North America with an unencapsulated all mass timber structure, setting an industry precedent for healthcare design. Understanding environmental health and human health are intrinsically connected, this community-backed mass timber hospital is poised to save over 9 million kilograms of embodied carbon dioxide compared to a conventional steel and concrete structure.

First mass timber acute care hospital in N. America

Architectural rendering of a hospital lobby area made out of mass timber, with floor-to-ceiling windows letting in light

Interior of an office building with wood interiors and people and walking and working in the space

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories "New Builds"

CNL "New Builds" is the largest Integrated Project Delivery project in Canada and a leader in mass timber innovation. The trio of buildings — the Science Collaboration Centre, the Minwamon Building and the Support Facility — are helping realize a more carbon-literate campus with innovating timber structures and collaborative design.

Pioneering Mass Timber Excellence

University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Architecture Hall

UNL's College of Architecture Expansion checks all the boxes of sustainability, aesthetics and function. As one of the first mass timber constructed architecture schools in the U.S., the four-storey building, meticulously integrated into the existing campus, is more than an incubator for aspiring design professionals — it’s a living laboratory — where students have the unique opportunity to study mass timber in a building where they can observe its performance firsthand.

Sustainability & Creativity in the Classroom