Chapter
Mar 18, 2024

A Subject Review on the Use of Mass Timber in the US Construction Industry

Publication: Construction Research Congress 2024

ABSTRACT

There is a growing body of literature exploring the viability of mass timber as a building material. Research and development in the use of mass timber will expand now that the International Code Council has approved the construction of high-rise buildings using mass timber. While several studies on mass timber with differing goals and methods have been published, a systematic examination of the current status, development, trends, and practical implementation associated with mass timber is limited. In the US construction market, a significant portion of industry practitioners is still reluctant to accept mass timber as a feasible load-bearing material. The purpose of this paper is to review and discuss the latest research trends and identify research gaps in the use of mass timber in the construction industry. The study conducts a systematic literature review using descriptive and content analysis of relevant publications in prominent journals from 2010 to 2022. This review study provides an improved understanding of the state-of-the-art research of mass timber and contributes to the existing body of knowledge by opening new directions for researchers. Practitioners can use the results of the study to make informed investment and implementation decisions.

Get full access to this article

View all available purchase options and get full access to this chapter.

REFERENCES

Ahmed, S., and Arocho, I. (2021). “Analysis of cost comparison and effects of change orders during construction: Study of a mass timber and a concrete building project”. Journal of Building Engineering. Vol. 33, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2020.101856.
Ahmed, S., and Arocho, I. (2021). “Feasibility assessment of mass timber as a mainstream building material in the US construction industry: Level of involvement, existing challenges, and recommendations”. Practice Periodical on Structural Design and Construction, Vol. 148 no.10, doi: https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)SC.1943-5576.0000574.
Burback, B., and Pei, S. (2017). “Cross-laminated timber for single-family residential construction: Comparative cost study”, Journal of Architectural Engineering, American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 23 No. 3, p. 06017002.
Chaggaris, R., Pei, S., Kingsley, G., and Kinder, E. (2021). “Cost-Effectiveness of Mass Timber Beam-Column Gravity Systems”, Journal of Architectural Engineering, Vol. 27 No. 3, doi: https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)AE.1943-5568.0000494.
Chen, C., Pierobon, F., Jones, S., Maples, I., Gong, Y., and Ganguly, I. (2022). “Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Mass Timber and Concrete Residential Buildings: A Case Study in China”, Sustainability, Vol. 14 No. 1, doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/su14010144.
Cresswell, J. W. (1998). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among Five Traditions, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Duan, Z., Huang, Q., and Zhang, Q. (2022). “Life cycle assessment of mass timber construction: A review”, Building and Environment, Vol. 221, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.109320.
Espinoza, O., Trujillo, V., Mallo, M., and Buehlmann, U. (2016). “Cross-Laminated Timber: Status and Research Needs in Europe”, Bioresources, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 281–295.
Evans, L. (2013). “Cross Laminated Timber: Taking wood buildings to the next level”, Architectural Records, pp. 7427–7443.
Gu, H., Liang, S., and Bergman, R. (2020). “Comparison of Building Construction and Life-Cycle Cost for a High-Rise Mass Timber Building with its Concrete Alternative”, Forest Products Journal, Vol. 70 No. 4, pp. 482–492, doi: https://doi.org/10.13073/FPJ-D-20-00052.
Himes, A., and Busby, G. (2020). “Wood buildings as a climate solution”, Developments in the Built Environment, Vol. 4, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dibe.2020.100030.
IBC (International Building Code). (2021). “Chapter 6 Types of Construction, 2021 International Building Code (IBC) | Icc Digital Codes”, available at: https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/IBC2021P1/chapter-6-types-of-construction (accessed 15 May 2023).
John, S., and Buchanan, A. (2012). “Cost and construction time for a 3-story post tensioned timber building compared with concrete and steel building”, presented at the Proceedings of the 2012 World Conference on Timber Engineering.
Kremer, P. D., and Symmons, M. A. (2018). Perceived barriers to the widespread adoption of Mass Timber Construction: An Australian construction industry case study, Vol. 1.
Larasatie, P., Guerrero, J. E., Hall, T., and Hansen, E. (2018). What Does the Us Pacific Northwest Public Believe About Tall Wood Buildings?
Liang, S., Gu, H., and Bergman, R. (2021). “Environmental Life-Cycle Assessment and Life-Cycle Cost Analysis of a High-Rise Mass Timber Building: A Case Study in Pacific Northwestern United States”, Sustainability, Vol. 13 No. 14, doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147831.
Liu, Y., Guo, H., Sun, C., and Chang, W. (2016). “Assessing Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) as an Alternative Material for Mid-Rise Residential Buildings in Cold Regions in China-A Life-Cycle Assessment Approach”, Sustainability, Vol. 8 No. 10, doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/su8101047.
Mallo, M., and Espinoza, O. (2015). “Awareness, perceptions and willingness to adopt Cross-Laminated Timber by the architecture community in the United States”, Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 94, pp. 198–210, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.01.090.
Marfella, G., and Winson-Geideman, K. (2021). “Timber and Multi-Storey Buildings: Industry Perceptions of Adoption in Australia”, Buildings, Vol. 11 No. 12, p. 653. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11120653.
Mitchell, H., Kotsovinos, P., Richter, F., Thomson, D., Barber, D., and Rein, G. (2022). “Review of fire experiments in mass timber compartments: Current understanding, limitations, and research gaps”, Fire and Materials, doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/fam.3121.
Petruch, M., and Walcher, D. (2021). “Timber for future? Attitudes towards timber construction by young millennials in Austria - Marketing implications from a representative study”, Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 294, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126324.
Philion, E., Chorlton, B., Gales, J., and Kotsovinos, P. (2022). “Structural fire modeling strategies for exposed mass timber compartments and experimental gaps for model validation”, Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 36 No. 6, p. 04022049.
Quiquero, H., Gales, J., Abu, A., and Al Hamd, R. (2020). “Finite element modelling of post-tensioned timber beams at ambient and fire conditions”, Fire Technology, Springer, Vol. 56, pp. 737–767.
Schlagbauer, D., Koppelhuber, J., and Heck, D. (2015). “Cost Calculation in Prefabricated Timber Construction: Methodology of Assessment and General Requirements”, in Saha, S., Zhang, Y., Yazdani, S. and Singh, A. (Eds.), presented at the Implementing Innovative Ideas in Structural Engineering and Project Management, pp. 1323–1328.
Schmid, J., Menis, A., Fragiacomo, M., Clemente, I., and Bochicchio, G. (2015). “Behaviour of Loaded Cross-Laminated Timber Wall Elements in Fire Conditions”, Fire Technology, Vol. 51 No. 6, pp. 1341–1370, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-015-0516-8.
Schmidt, J., and Griffin, C. T. (2013). “Barriers to the design and use of cross-laminated timber structures in high-rise multi-family housing in the United States”, Structures and Architecture, CRC Press Boca Raton, FL, USA, pp. 2225–2231.
Scouse, A., Kelley, S. S., Liang, S., and Bergman, R. (2020). “Regional and net economic impacts of high-rise mass timber construction in Oregon”, Sustainable Cities and Society, Vol. 61, p. 102154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102154.
Smith, R. E., Griffin, G., and Rice, T. (2015). “Solid timber construction: Process, practice, performance”,.
Stegner, H., and Fotheringham, N. (2022). “Research and Testing Lead to Historic Code Change The History of Getting a Sustainable Tall Building Option-Mass in the US Codes”, Forest Products Journal, Vol. 72 No. 4, pp. 226–234.
Suzuki, J., Mizukami, T., Naruse, T., and Araki, Y. (2016). “Fire Resistance of Timber Panel Structures Under Standard Fire Exposure”, Fire Technology, Vol. 52 No. 4, pp. 1015–1034, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10694-016-0578-2.

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Go to Construction Research Congress 2024
Construction Research Congress 2024
Pages: 287 - 295

History

Published online: Mar 18, 2024

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Authors

Affiliations

Shafayet Ahmed, Ph.D. [email protected]
1Lecturer, Dept. of the Built Environment, Univ. of Maryland Eastern Shore. Email: [email protected]
Vineeth Dharmapalan, Ph.D., M.ASCE [email protected]
2Assistant Professor, Dept. of Construction Management, California Polytechnic State Univ., San Luis Obispo, CA. Email: [email protected]
Ziyu Jin, Ph.D., Aff.M.ASCE [email protected]
3Lecturer II, Dept. of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7680-617X. Email: [email protected]

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Citations

Download citation

If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.

View Options

Get Access

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Paper
$35.00
Add to cart
Buy E-book
$164.00
Add to cart

Get Access

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Paper
$35.00
Add to cart
Buy E-book
$164.00
Add to cart

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Copy the content Link

Share with email

Email a colleague

Share