It’s storey time for wood construction

In a world of innovations like special glazing that can allow a building to generate its own electricity, it’s hard to wrap your head around how one of our oldest construction materials has become the latest trend in the building market.

Wood-frame buildings – tall ones – are appearing across Canada. (I was going to say ‘growing across Canada’ but that seemed like too much of a pun).

Tall wood buildings offer a way to cut down on the environmental impact of the steel and concrete used in most construction. For the bold, wood offers new and exciting design opportunities.

Wood-frame buildings also have a very different feel that you can sense from the moment you walk in the door.

In 2015, the Ontario Building Code was amended to allow wood-frame buildings up to six storeys tall, an increase of two storeys.

In 2020, the Code will be updated again, and could allow even higher wood construction, possibly as high as 12 storeys.

People always have questions about the safety of tall wood buildings. In British Columbia, where tall wood structures are more common, industry experts say the buildings are as safe as those made of more traditional materials. Amendments to the building code are common to add extra safety requirements.

The construction materials themselves, combining old and new technologies, may be the most compelling argument for the safety of the structures.

For strength, builders are using cross-laminated timber, which is made by gluing layers of wood together at right angles to create reinforced sheets for the walls and floors. It’s said to be as strong as concrete but up to five times lighter.

And fans of wood construction point to a newer product called mass timber, made by gluing together multiple pieces of wood under pressure to create an extremely strong wooden pillar. The mass timber is assembled in a factory and then brought to the construction site, saving significant construction time.

Is multi-storey wood construction a fad? The University of British Columbia would say not. At 18 storeys, its Brock Commons student residence is the world’s tallest wood building. It’s a hybrid building with two concrete core pillars. However, the massive amount of wood used in construction (instead of concrete) is estimated to have saved nearly 680 tonnes of carbon emissions.

There’s also the 13-storey Origine residential project going up in Quebec City, which is offering ‘environmentally friendly’ condo living.

A wooden five-storey office and retail project is currently under construction in Liberty Village in downtown Toronto and several more multi-storey buildings are planned in the downtown core.

Tall wood construction is far from being the norm and hasn’t yet reached the promised stage where it is significantly less expensive than traditional steel and concrete construction.There aren’t many tradespeople with experience in this building method. Builders may have to plan on their projects taking longer while workers learn new techniques on site.It may also take time to find manufacturers of specialized building materials, such as the cross-laminated timber, who can supply large-scale projects.

As the wooden construction industry matures, though, these problems are likely to be resolved and the potential of faster, cheaper, more environmentally responsible construction will be realized.

And the good news is that wood-frame condo buildings have the same warranty protections as those built with more traditional steel.

In the future, I’m sure we’ll continue to see ever-taller wood construction.

In Japan, plans have been announced for the construction of a 70-storey wooden office tower. The Sumitomo Forestry Company plans to mark its parent company’s 350-year anniversary by opening the massive wooden skyscraper in 2041.