Wood has made our built world possible. Historically, wood has been a fundamental building material for homes, bridges, and infrastructure due to its abundance and workability, but the Industrial Revolution brought a demand for factories, urban development, and versatile materials that could sustain the booming growth of cities. As fire resistance, strength, and scalability became paramount in modern construction, new improvements in steel production and reinforced cement became popular with reduced production costs and the ability to match humanity’s fast expansion.
But, as we now know, cement and steel require large amounts of water — up to almost 8,000 gallons per ton just to produce the materials, which is almost thirty times the amount compared to wood construction materials. Along with water demands, steel and cement require up to ten times more energy to produce than wood, with production processes often resulting in harmful substances like heavy metals, greenhouse gasses, and carbon monoxide being released into the atmosphere and waterways.
So as our population increases and the demand for more housing and infrastructure grows, how can we develop in more effective, affordable, and environmentally conscious ways? Some professionals in the Oregon timber and construction industries believe they have a solution.
Marcus Kauffman, a biomass resource specialist at the Oregon Department of Forestry, has worked in economic development and wood utilization for over 20 years. He helps lead the Oregon Mass Timber Coalition in its mission to find a more sustainable approach to residential construction and urban development that can address issues like climate change, construction efficiency, and the current state of the housing crisis on the West Coas.
Mass timber is a strong sustainable building material made from enhanced wood structures to provide an eco-friendly alternative to cement and steel.
Engineered to withstand fires and seismic events, mass timber reintroduces wood to our urban development in a way that still supports today’s construction needs.
The elements needed to create and process cement and steel must be extracted from deep in the Earth, devastating ecosystems and waterways, before energy-intensive refining and processing processes take place. Mass timber on the other hand keeps excessive fossil fuels in the ground that would otherwise be released through steel and cement use, can help prevent wildfires by thinning forests, and still holds naturally sequestered carbon.
To produce mass timber, trees are sourced from National Forests and private lands, often through clear-cutting, with the forest then replanted and managed to ensure sustainable regrowth and maintain a healthy tree population for the future. Mass timber not only depends on trees to support the industry so by supporting the protection of our forests, they still benefit and vice versa. The areas designated for mass timber resourcing can be properly surveyed, managed, and protected for sustainable harvesting and the future of our forests. “What converts forest lands towards other uses is the push of development,” says Kauffman. “We get to marginal places to produce trees, but if we place value on our forests, our wood products keep the forests as forests.”
Utilizing engineered wood through mass timber allows buildings to be built more quickly and efficiently. A mass plywood house is created in a flat-pack approach—meaning it can be assembled and fit together like a gingerbread house. Mass plywood houses are made to order and are delivered straight from the factory to the job site, often using locally sourced timber and providing local jobs.
Construction of mass timber houses and structures only requires a crane and a small crew. Lifting and assembling large pieces can take weeks compared to the months or years it takes to build a traditional house today. Mass timber can allow for neighborhoods to be built quickly and offer builders the option to decrease their carbon footprint. Fewer workers are needed and there is less room for mistakes or delays. One caveat is that major repairs can be tricky, as they require parts to be deconstructed or removed which could affect a mass timber structure’s integrity as a whole. Scientists are still working to better engineer their mass plywood to be better resistant to future damage.
Beyond building efficiency, mass plywood structures have significant wildfire resiliency that makes them an optimal choice in the Pacific Northwest, where wildfires are common events. In the event of a wildfire, all it takes for an average house to succumb to the flames is one ember slipping through a crack.
Mass timber plywood is tempered to withstand high heat and includes a burn layer, which slows down the burning process and preserves the structural integrity of the building if there were to be a fire.
Right now, one issue with mass timber is simply demand. Specialists like Kauffmann are working to increase the public’s — and developer’s — awareness of the benefits of mass timber to bridge the gap into real communities facing the issues that define the 21st century, like natural disasters and the affordability of housing.
At the University of Oregon, housing experts and members of the Oregon Mass Timber Coalition are working together to design plans and models for projects to improve seismic movement resilience and fire resilience in mass timber plywood products while also emphasizing proper forestry practices, such as wood procurement mapping, to protect the longevity of wood-producing forests.
“Collaboration is the backbone of this business,” says Kauffman. “We bring people together and convene across the supply chain to inform us what our investments look like.”
At the Oregon State University’s Tallwood Design Institute, engineering and design students and professionals are researching and developing housing projects built exclusively with mass timber plywood, creating real prototypes and testing fire resistance.
Phill Mann, the Technical Manager at the Tallwood Design Institute, applies his years of experience in carpentry and design to guide projects and research at the lab. One of the goals that specialists like Mann and Kauffman have for mass timber is to see it become more mainstream within urban development, but before that can happen, the data has to confirm it’s possible. Mass timber uses enhanced wood structures like glue-laminated poles to increase fire safety and structural stability, but factories that produce mass timber pieces are limited, and timber is limited, too.
But in the A.A. “Red” Emmerson Advanced Wood Products Lab at Oregon State University, a mass timber-constructed home prototype sits. Sitting there, the house looks so… normal. And it was built in just about a month. It’s easy to see how professionals like Mann and Kauffman believe in mass timber construction as a solution for the housing crisis. But right now, it’s potential as a solution is just that —potential.
Outside the lab, it seems like the movement toward mass timber housing construction is catching on. With more funding into the research of mass timber housing being granted, as well as the interest in the development of multifamily mass timber houses the interest is growing.
“We are trying to build an ecosystem of support that can drive innovation and bring mass timber to a globally competitive level,” says Kauffman.
“The whole purpose is so that mass timber can get us to a higher level of outcomes — quality jobs, economic stability for communities, lower carbon built environment, and healthier forests…to think about mass timber as a catalyst and work with nature to provide a better livelihood for people.”