BUILDING SUSTAINABLY WITH LARGE TIMBER

Large timber structures approach sustainability more readily than steel and concrete in buildings, even with attempts to modify the production and use of steel and concrete to reduce currently high GHG emissions.

   Vancouver-based architects Michael Green and Natalie Telewiak love wood. They champion the idea that Earth can, and should, grow our buildings—or grow the materials we use to build them. Natalie begins to tell us why, "So as much as looking at the wellness and calming properties of natural materials—which have been proven time and time again through different studies that we do—our stress levels are lower and our heart rates go down when we're near natural materials"[UD101-1]

   "But each piece of wood is unique, each piece has a story, just like each of us, [of] where it's come from in the province, the kind of journey it's taken. And I think that part of that connection to the material is just that it has that unique story and connection to place. And then the other is just that physical warmth. I think more and more, when we see the impact of experience within wood buildings, it's really creating that connection and love of being within a space, that we really see mostly with natural materials."

   Michael adds, '...we're really committed to the idea, broader than wood, the idea that everything should be ultimately organic, that we should move to a truly sustainable world where we can grow what we build with. Obviously, today we use aluminum, which is really hard on the environment; [it’s a] huge energy user. We use concrete, we use steel; these materials have big impacts on the planet, and they’re permanent impacts on the planet."

   The “growing your home” thing, the concept of that, does require a bit of a cultural shift in lots of places. When seeing clear cut forests, it can be heartbreaking to see a forest that's been cut, even for me, who believes that using wood is a really positive thing. But then I reflect on the fact that we all drive by farm fields, and we don't think twice about it. And yet, a [harvested] farm field is effectively a clear cut that never got replanted."

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"And I think us moving to the connection of where materials come from, understanding what it means to plant something and to wait, is really the cultural shift that happens to help us embrace the idea that cutting down a tree can be bad, but it can be wonderful as a source of solving, you know, our real challenges of today and tomorrow." -- Michael Green, MGA

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"And I think part of that shift, too, is really, in our food, in our clothing, in our furniture. There's this shifting desire and perspective to understand who made it? Where did it come from? How close is it to home? How is it impacting my local economy? And that's, very much now, the opportunity within the construction and architecture industry, that shift of perception and really wanting and asking for that."

   "The conversation on how we deal with the issues of deforestation and transportation is an incredibly important conversation and pretty complex one because they are typically in forest practices, well-managed, developed country forest practices, the replanting cycle and the forest management cycle, is increasingly sophisticated and increasingly responsible and is creating. A balanced forest in Europe is actually growing faster than it’s being cut down, but there's more wood being cut down today than ever. And so there is a sustainable model of forestry."

   Michael adds that there's also a terrible model of forestry, in parts of the world, for example, in South America, Africa, and Indonesia, where there's deforestation compounds the problems of climate change, because we need the forest also to be part of our carbon sequestration. But in those countries, most of the reason trees are being cut down is not for buildings, it's because they're being cut down to grow crops, or worse, actually, for grazing land, in South America. Crops are replacing the forest; it's not being harvested for buildings.

MGA is attempting to build an industry that encourages reforestation to a forest, which means to plant forest where trees have been cut previously, often on agricultural land. But the answer to that [deforestation] problem is actually to build more in wood. When you cut down a tree, and replant it, and can make money because there's a sustainable industry using the wood to build with, it encourages reforestation. In many parts of the world, like Brazil, this could mean you would make more money planting trees than cutting them down to bring in livestock.

   Natalie says, "... our main focus, even though we're really known as timber architects, is actually low-carbon construction, and also social impacts. And right now, we do quite a bit of research and look at our options, when we're deciding what to build, how to build, and certainly the materials to use. And, you know, over the past decade, when we're evaluating those choices, timber and mass timber has been the clearly more sustainable option. And when we're thinking about lifecycle, and the amount of energy needed to fabricate product added value, you're already well along that chain of how much energy has already been created by the sun, and the Earth, to build that material."

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As we continue to research low-carbon materials over time, there are going to be more and more opportunities to shape how we use those materials. How do we really value when we do use trees and timber? And what are the alternatives to

what we call the ‘mass timber industry?” It is a pretty young industry, over the last 20 years—as the heavy timber industry is thousands of years old. We have examples of 1000-year-old buildings that still stand today, in timber, that have even gone through fires, and survived, and been repaired. 

   Michael, in Vancouver, believes that they can do these buildings for less money than concrete—not a lot less money than concrete—as the local concrete industry right now is pretty busy and competitive. Concrete is getting expensive in Vancouver.

   Part of that cost savings is related to the ability to assemble sections of timber buildings in-shop and transport them to the site in weather suitable for on-site construction, Timber is somewhat lighter than concrete and steel; hence, materials transportation costs can be less for timber.