A team of AEC firms, assembled by Generate, an AEC technology company that advocates for the greater use of mass timber in construction, has developed a digital catalog of integrated design systems that focus on the structural application of mass timber as a carbon-conscious response to high-density urban building needs, especially for housing.
Meeting those needs within the status quo—where buildings currently account to two-fifths of greenhouse gas emissions—is at odds with many cities’ environmental aspirations. For example, Boston’s goal of reducing its carbon footprint 80% by 2050 would be unachievable if that metro also hits its parallel goal of building 300,000 more housing units and 40 million sf of commercial buildings over the next 30 years.
To bring down those CO2 emissions and streamline the construction process, an AEC coalition has developed Tallhouse, a digital catalog of customizable systems comprised of four mass timber structural solutions. That catalog illustrates a range of mass timber design options that are engineered for speedier delivery, sustainability, and cost savings.
Also see: San Jose affordable housing project will feature mass timber frame
The coalition includes Generate, Niles Bolton Associates (architect), Buro Happold (SE, MEP, sustainability consultant, embodied carbon analyst), Consigli Construction (GC), Arup (fire engineering, structural review), Code Red (code consultant), Urbanica (developer), and Olifant Market Development (carbon and forests).
The coalition’s work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Softwood Lumber Board, the Binational Softwood Lumber Council, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Tallhouse's systems are designed as kits of parts to accommodate most countries' products and transportation.
THE DESIGNS ANTICIPATE TALLER WOOD BUILDING CODES
Tallhouse’s four options are a hybrid steel/cross-laminated timber (CLT) structure, a mass-timber post, beam and plate structure; a hybrid light-gauge metal/CLT structure, and a full CLT plate honeycomb structure.
By “hybridizing” conventional construction materials with timber, the Tallhouse designs can offset near-term emissions by greatly reducing emissions from the manufacture of materials, while storing carbon in the timber structure over the lifetime of buildings. The team sees synergies between the steel and timber industries, as both materials lend themselves to digitization and carbon efficiency.
To evaluate each design, the coalition developed a Carbon Data Analysis tool that validated savings in embodied emissions ranging from 14% to 52%.
The coalition used a Carbon Data Analysis tool to gauge the impact of its designs on carbon emissions and global warming.
The Tallhouse system is adaptable for buildings eight to 18 stories, in line with the upcoming 2021 U.S. Tallwood Codes that would allow the use of mass timber for structures at those heights under the 2021 International Building Code. According to Generate, the systems are designed as kits of parts to accommodate most American, Canadian, and European manufacturers’ products and shipping logistics.
The U.S. Northeast is home to the highest percentage of sustainably managed timber in the U.S. Long-lived forest products such as mass timber building materials have longer timelines than paper or pulp products for keeping CO2 stored in wood post-harvesting.
The Tallhouse team is implementing these systems in over 1 million sf of construction in the U.S., and is looking for additional developers. The Tallhouse catalog, says John Klein, Generate’s CEO and project leader, “was developed with the specific intent of at once enabling our cities to achieve their ambitious CO2 footprint reduction goals, and to meet growing demand for affordable, biophilic housing.” As these systems become widely accessible to architectural communities globally, they will “serve as a vehicle to deploy sustainable materials at scale,” says Klein.
Related Stories
| Mar 1, 2011
Smart cities: getting greener and making money doing it
The Global Green Cities of the 21st Century conference in San Francisco is filled with mayors, architects, academics, consultants, and financial types all struggling to understand the process of building smarter, greener cities on a scale that's practically unimaginable—and make money doing it.
| Mar 1, 2011
USGBC's new LEED Interpretations similar to old precedent-setting CIRs
This week the USGBC launched its long-awaited LEED Interpretations process and database. LEED Interpretations are like project-specific Credit Interpretation Rulings, but unlike those CIRs, they can be applied to multiple projects. LEED project teams with a unique situation or a question not answered by existing LEED resources have had access to CIRs since 2009, but those CIRs have been limited. With the launch of LEED Interpretations, the USGBC hopes to broaden its scope.
| Feb 25, 2011
Denver excelling in LEED green building development
The mile high city has a decidedly green tinge. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) today noted that nearly 30 projects in Denver have achieved LEED green building certification since 2010 and two of these developments achieved LEED’s highest rating, Platinum.
| Feb 25, 2011
Procter & Gamble will pursue LEED for all new sites globally
Procter & Gamble will pursue LEED certification for all new sites. P&G's Taicang plant in China - which is breaking ground today - is the first P&G manufacturing site to pursue LEED certification, with several additional new P&G sites currently working toward the same distinction globally.
| Feb 24, 2011
Perkins+Will designs 100 LEED Certified buildings
Perkins+Will announced the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification of its 100th sustainable building, marking a key milestone for the firm and for the sustainable design industry. The Vancouver-based Dockside Green Phase Two Balance project marks the firm’s 100th LEED certified building and is tied for the highest scoring LEED building worldwide with its sister project, Dockside Green Phase One.
| Feb 24, 2011
New reports chart path to net-zero-energy commercial buildings
Two new reports from the Zero Energy Commercial Buildings Consortium (CBC) on achieving net-zero-energy use in commercial buildings say that high levels of energy efficiency are the first, largest, and most important step on the way to net-zero.
| Feb 23, 2011
Financial outlook for green commercial properties is promising
Leanne Tobias, founder and managing principal of Malachite LLC, an advisory firm that specializes in the development, leasing, management, financing, and certification of sustainable or green real estate on a global basis, writes about new government policy proposals that have her cheering—and one that makes her gravely concerned.
| Feb 23, 2011
Unprecedented green building dispute could cost developer $122.3 Million
A massive 4.5 million-sf expansion of the Carousel Center shopping complex in Syracuse, N.Y., a project called Destiny USA, allegedly failed to incorporate green building components that developers had promised the federal government—including LEED certification. As a result, the project could lose its tax-exempt status, which reportedly saved developer The Pyramid Cos. $120 million, and the firm could be penalized $2.3 million by the IRS.
| Feb 23, 2011
Green building on the chopping block in House spending measure
Bryan Howard, Legislative Director of the U.S. Green Building Council, blogs about proposed GOP budget cuts that could impact green building in the commercial sector.