Sustainable Timber Construction: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

Timber is one of the oldest construction material used by human since the dawn of civilization. The use of timber in construction has slowly diminished since the inventions of concrete and steel materials in the last few centuries. Since then, timber has been connoted with construction material that has issues with weak strength performance, fire endurance, and long-term durability. After more than a century of unpleasant perceptions, renaissance of timber in construction has started near the end of 20^th century after the re-inventions of massive timber elements that have similar performance as concrete when it is used in building constructions. Particular products that have gained attention recently from architects and structural engineers are glue-laminated timber (glulam) beams and cross-laminated timber (CLT) plates due to its high strength-to-weight ratio and flexibility for use in various structural elements of multi-story buildings. With the introduction of performance-based building codes in Europe and North America, the use of massive timber elements in tall buildings has received wide acceptance and has been in competition mode with traditional reinforced concrete material. The main objective of this study is to review performances of massive timber elements in various building applications in terms of strength, cost-competitiveness, and last but not least sustainability impacts including its contribution to carbon neutrality effort. Historical and literature reviews will be given to demonstrate feasibility of timber and its massive elements for building applications with considering reinforced concrete as the benchmark. Challenges and opportunities of timber use in construction will be discussed including potential use in hybrid system in which engineers can combine material constituents used in forming structural components or systems to reach optimum performance without ignoring sustainability constraints. It is expected that the outcomes of this study will encourage architects and engineers to use more timber globally as alternative sustainable construction material beyond the regions commonly utilizing timber as construction materials for generations.