Universities are turning to timber structures made from cross-laminated or mass timber to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability, local industry and innovation. Idaho University plans on installing such an impressive structure within their ICCU Arena.
Mass timber offers numerous advantages in construction, such as lower construction costs and extended life cycles. LMN Architects recently completed Founders Hall on the Seattle campus using mass timber materials.
Cost-Effective
Universities and colleges that are struggling to reduce building costs may find mass timber construction an invaluable solution. Utilizing wood as their primary material helps lower costs significantly in several ways - design and construction alike. Timber's lower density makes it easier for architects to construct larger structures with smaller floor plates while using less material is needed to achieve similar strength and stiffness compared to concrete or steel buildings, saving both cost and energy during fabrication and erection.
Wood offers more sustainable construction materials than either concrete or steel, including structural savings and reduced energy usage during fabrication processes. Furthermore, its use reduces waste generation significantly as its glulam production uses significantly less waste material and energy than steel fabrication methods; further reducing foundation requirements by half!
Code requirements account for a considerable portion of construction costs at universities, with stringent safety requirements needing to be met in order to protect students and faculty alike. These requirements often include stair towers, fireproof corridors and seismic/wind loading standards that increase with higher occupancy levels - at considerable expense given how often space is taken up by elevators or stairwells.
Wood's natural ability to resist flame can make it an effective life-safety solution that reduces costs significantly, yet only with proper collaboration between designers and contractors can the design integrity be guaranteed. Utilizing mass timber structures allows for prefabrication offsite followed by rapid assembly on-site reducing overall project schedule timeframe and improving efficiency.
Though mass timber remains new in America, its growing use as an architectural statement piece on college campuses has seen it quickly gain ground. One such CLT student housing project that has made an impressionful statement about this trend can be found at UC Santa Cruz: the RNEW Student Residences are among the first of this type in America.
Environmentally Friendly
CLT buildings constructed using mass timber offer many advantages for college campuses, from time and money savings to climate change mitigation. Wood and lumber derived from it both store carbon, providing long-term climate benefits.
RNEW Student Residences at UC Santa Cruz were constructed using CLT and glulam construction methods, offering a shining example. Situated on a restricted site within an ancient redwood grove, architects faced strict regulations as to which trees could be cut down and where materials should be placed during construction; as such prefabricated modularized CLT proved the perfect fit, saving time while being easily stackable on existing masonry walls.
CLT for residence halls proved an educational opportunity; students and visitors are invited to explore its structural components as they become acquainted with its first-of-its-kind structure at the university. According to Schreiber, initially this building was intended as concrete structure; however, an early grant inspired consideration of timber structures instead.
Mass timber buildings have a rich history in North America, with numerous historic structures made out of wood. More recently, however, mass timber buildings are beginning to catch on in the United States - particularly on college campuses such as at UC Santa Cruz or Arkansas University of the Arts where Library Annex and Adohi Hall are built from mass timber construction materials. These modern mass timber buildings include Residence Halls like those at UC Santa Cruz as well as Library Annex and Adohi Hall as examples of modern mass timber construction techniques.
Brock Commons at the University of British Columbia set new heights when it opened in 2018. Constructed using CLT and glulam for its structural elements, assembly took less than 70 days on-site.
Constructing Eurodita Glulam log homes may cost more than building with concrete, but their increased costs can often be offset by faster schedules and reduced risk during construction. Furthermore, other costs like waste disposal fees, labor expenses, equipment purchases and delays are avoided altogether.
Biophilic
Biophilia, or the human need to connect with nature, has emerged as a popular trend in architecture and design. Designers are taking notice, integrating natural elements such as timber into indoor environments in order to promote wellbeing of occupants of building occupants. Although there are various methods of bringing nature indoors, timber remains the go-to choice due to its multiple benefits.
Researchers have demonstrated that wood has a calming effect and can help alleviate stress, as its natural texture provides comforting relief from tension. When people touch wood objects, their brain subconsciously links it with trees and life; creating an immediate comforting reaction in both body and mind, helping people relax more easily and focus on tasks at hand.
Wood is an eco-friendly building material. With low environmental impacts and natural sound absorbency properties, wood is ideal for use on college campus facilities. Furthermore, its insulation properties keep spaces warmer in winter and cooler in summer - both features that make wood an attractive building material choice.
Mass timber has quickly become one of the go-to construction materials on college campuses in recent years. Consisting of multiple solid load-bearing wood panels connected by binding joints to create incredible strength and stability, mass timber buildings are lighter than their concrete counterparts while offering greater construction possibilities - ideal for campus facilities!
Mass timber technology may still be in its infancy, but colleges are serving as incubators. Rice University architecture professor Jesus Vassallo has taught a graduate course on mass timber for five years; when he first started teaching this class it seemed "something that might happen sometime down the road," according to him.
Mass timber is not only cost-effective and sustainable; it is also extremely versatile, serving multiple purposes in architecture such as roofs, walls, floors and interior/exterior finishes. Furthermore, mass timber can even be combined with other materials like glass and steel to form unique structures.
Versatile
Mass timber is an emerging construction material that's becoming more prevalent on college campuses thanks to an aggressive push by the wood products industry and colleges' desire to demonstrate their commitments to sustainability and local industry. Idaho Central Credit Union Arena will feature an exterior structure made almost exclusively of wood - including cross-laminated timber (CLT), which uses layers of planks stacked perpendicularly that are then glued together using adhesive glue for creating structural walls, floors and roof slabs.
Kresge College campus at UC Santa Cruz envisioned using CLT to showcase the material's beauty while emphasizing its asymmetrical architectural style, marked by curves. However, due to being located among redwood groves with strict tree removal limits in place, the project team faced additional constraints that needed to be addressed by employing prefabricated mass timber wall and floor components as solutions.
The result was a building with a modern, clean aesthetic that fits seamlessly with its surroundings on campus. Mass timber buildings offer warmer, more welcoming aesthetics which complements the University's desire to celebrate nature as part of sustainability efforts.
Mass timber also boasts the advantage of accommodating wide spans without interior columns, creating more open space suitable for classrooms or gatherings.
Mass timber construction uses lighter and more sustainable materials than concrete or steel to be more energy-efficient. Its thermal properties and dense wood fibers help reduce air conditioning needs while providing enhanced insulation properties.
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is another college which has taken advantage of mass timber to enhance its campus design. Inspired by its natural surroundings and historic turn-of-the-20th-century post-and-beam warehouses, while still creating contemporary learning spaces. Hines worked alongside Swinerton Mass Timber on the timber component for three RNEW Student Residences and one Academic Building as part of their design; Swinerton provided delegated design coordination/modeling/tutorial services while Timberlab performed detailing and fabrication for its glulam beams/shearwalls/tutorial walls / buildings respectively.