Scaling Mass Timber Construction in Dense Urban Environments: Three Not-So-Little Projects
Using mass timber construction instead of concrete and steel can greatly reduce the embodied carbon of new construction, but faces specific challenges in dense urban environments in addition to limited contractor experience and cost risk. This session presents an affordable housing project in New Haven and multi-family and adaptive re-use projects in Brooklyn that highlight how effective design and project planning can mitigate these challenges to increase the construction of high-performance mass-timber buildings in urban cores.
Session Speaker(s):
Session Chair(s):
Event Time:
Thursday, March 20, 2025 - 2:30pm to 3:30pm
Room / Location:
Marina 1
CEU Information:
Credit pending for AIA, BOC, GBCI, MA CSL, NAHB, NARI, PHI, Phius, and RESNET certification.
Learning Objectives:
- Summarize challenges encountered when building with mass timber in tight urban locations, and solutions to help realize the benefit of faster construction timelines using prefabricated mass timber panels
- Discuss key design details to effectively integrate CLT/NLT into highly efficient envelopes that meet passive house principles without using foam insulation
- Describe the challenges that contractors with little or no experience with mass timber projects often face and ways to mitigate them
- Take measures to protect mass timber floor and walls from the elements during construction in the Northeast climate to maintain appealing panel finishes
Session ID:
BOS25-133
