Structural timber has reached office buildings, company headquarters and production spaces. It builds fast, weighs little and stores CO₂. In return it asks for a more precise design, decided earlier. Here is what to know if you are considering a timber building.
Why timber
Timber is a renewable material that stores CO₂ for the whole life of the building. It is light, it is machined in the factory with great precision and it is assembled dry, quickly and with a clean site. Left exposed in the workspaces, it makes the material tangible and adds to the quality of the spaces.
The construction systems
There are three main systems. X-LAM (or CLT) panels, solid timber in cross-laminated layers, form load-bearing walls and floors. Timber frame makes walls lighter and leaves room for insulation. Glulam spans large distances with beams and columns. A well-designed building combines them, and sets them alongside concrete and steel where they are needed: foundations, stair cores, bracing. Building in timber means choosing, point by point, the most suitable material.
Durability is designed
Timber lasts when it is protected from water and direct sun. Overhangs, splayed reveals, raised connections to the ground and details that shed water protect the surfaces: durability is entrusted to geometry before treatments. Dry assembly keeps the components separable, and therefore replaceable and recoverable at end of life.
Fire is designed too. Solid timber burns slowly and predictably: its resistance is calculated and sized, as for other materials.
Prefabricating means deciding earlier
A timber structure is produced in the factory and assembled on site in a short time. Every opening, every services route, every joint has to be defined in advance. That is why the project is developed in BIM, with architecture, structures and building systems on the same model, linked to the production of the components. It is the natural ground for integrated design.
Supply chain and certifications
The origin of the timber can be verified: PEFC and FSC chains of custody trace the material from the forest to the site. Timber contributes to the credits of environmental certifications such as LEED, together with energy, air quality and comfort.
A case: the Marlegno headquarters
In Calcinate we designed the Marlegno headquarters: more than 2,100 m² on three levels with a timber structure, a reinforced-concrete wall housing the vertical connections, LEED Gold certification. The project is on the Marlegno page.