Wood materials are having a moment. Timber industry leaders are finally beginning to see something they’ve been working hard for the last 15 years to cultivate – a renewed embrace of wood from architecture and design firms, particularly in mass timber projects.
Next week in officeinsight, we’ll feature a series of ambitious mass timber projects by top A&D firms that show the progression of wood from a siloed, site-specific, homely aesthetic-driven material to modern, high-tech applications that designers want to work with to build larger scale structures. This week, we’ll set the stage by introducing Think Wood.
Think Wood is an organization that presents the latest in wood innovation and research. Its website is an excellent resource to use to educate yourself on the newest innovations in wood materials, and how designers could be working with wood in their projects. All of the information below can be found at the thinkwood.com, and we encourage you to head to the website to learn more.
Full disclosure: Think Wood’s primary funder is the Softwood Lumber Board (SLB), an “industry-funded initiative responsible for increasing demand for softwood lumber products in outdoor, residential and non-residential construction.” The organization is also supported by WoodWorks – Wood Products Council and the American Wood Council, in project assistance and education as well as code support.
Think Wood is clearly presenting a rosy picture of the timber industry. And great things are indeed happening in lumber, but it certainly has its challenges. Just one challenge is the traceability of the wood designers specify in their projects. To learn more about this issue, check out officeinsight’s Traceability of Wood feature, published in October 2017.
A Snapshot of the Timber Industry
The timber industry is evolving. To catch you up on the basics, Think Wood has some stats:
“The U.S. wood products industry generates $20.4 billion in payroll income annually, with an additional $3.5 billion each year from forestry and logging occupations, while contributing roughly $1 billion in state and local taxes. Together, wood production, forestry and logging are responsible for more than half a million U.S. jobs.
Oregon, California, Pennsylvania, Texas and Georgia lead U.S. states in the number of jobs in the wood products, forestry and logging industries.
Growth is expected. A study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects employment opportunities in renewable natural resources to increase more than 5 percent between 2015 and 2020 for college graduates with bachelor’s or higher degrees. Jobs in sustainable forest management are expected to remain as stable as the pool of candidates.”
Framing Wood’s Future Marketplace
Wood has enjoyed a robust history of use as a structural and finishing material, particularly in residential design. But cutting-edge mass timber technology is paving the way for an expanded role in the marketplace, bringing more commercial and larger-scale projects into reach.
“Traditional wood-frame construction, such as low-rise multifamily buildings, is tried and true,” notes the Think Wood website. “New innovations in wood construction, podium design, mass timber and hybrid systems allow architects, engineers, designers and developers to build a wide range of projects.”
“The business and design rationale for wood across building segments comes from its durability, flexibility, installation efficiency and ease of use. When projects are designed from the start to build upon wood’s unique qualities, they can enhance aesthetics, environmental cost savings, building performance improvements and speed to market.
The thriving mass timber movement has been a defining factor in wood’s growing use in larger office and multifamily structures. In cities such as Minneapolis; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, wood is returning as a structural element in mid- and high-rise buildings, triggering renewed growth in the wood products industry nationwide.
These buildings benefit from the long spans and tall floor plates that mass timber construction affords. The wood structures are often left exposed, allowing occupants to benefit from the natural material’s known psychological and physiological benefits while limiting costs associated with typical finish materials. For example, rooms with exposed wood have been linked to lowered blood pressure and a greater sense of comfort among occupants. In healthcare and senior living environments, specifically, designers are embracing biophilic design, rediscovering the power of wood and other natural building materials to improve patient experiences and outcomes, as well as staff performance.”
A New Spirit of Innovation
The lumber industry is positioning itself as one driven by innovation and bringing a wide spectrum of career opportunities. Think Wood introduces those opportunities:
>In design. Architects and other design professionals have begun specializing their practices in tall timber, biophilic design (using natural materials, including wood) and sustainable design (also frequently using wood) due to wood’s aesthetic, environmental and economic benefits.
>On the jobsite. The increasing use of wood in mid-rise commercial and multifamily projects is supporting jobs in project management, contracting, subcontracting, wood finishing and more. The manufacture of prefabricated wood assemblies and entire structures, too, has created a host of new employment opportunities on and off the jobsite.
>In rural communities. Good jobs in mills are plentiful in some of the nation’s most beautiful rural communities, which account for nearly three-quarters of the country’s land area. There, local economies are often centralized around the production of a single natural resource. With the new class of next-generation wood products seeing increased use, rural communities can rely on jobs from a sustainable domestic industry rooted in a natural resource for generations to come.
>In tech.In addition to traditional harvesting (forestry) and processing (mill) jobs, new careers can be found at the intersection of sustainability and technology. For example, forest managers are using drone technology to administer pest control and perform fire-prevention checks.
>On campus. Research at our nation’s colleges and universities is powering advances in tall timber engineering and prefab systems. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) students, established engineers and biomaterial researchers are finding new career opportunities thanks to wood.
Performance & Value
Think Wood also outlines the properties that make wood attractive when designing for long-term value:
>Provides flexible thermal properties.Wood is an excellent insulator. By adapting the thicknesses of wood, architects can dial in the thermal properties called for by the local climate.
>Offers inherent moisture buffering. Properly treated for its climate and with adequate ventilation designed into the structure, wood naturally buffers moisture without compromising integrity and has excellent longevity and durability, even in wet climates.
>Delivers seismic resilience.For buildings in regions with seismic activity, naturally flexible wood and the types of connectors used in wood framing and other structural elements can offer a degree of motion that would cause structural damage to more rigid materials.
>Has advantageous acoustic properties.Designing a space for people to enjoy means accommodating their experience. Wood can be formed to amplify and enhance sound – or mute it.
Think Wood’s website includes access to the Think Wood Research Library– “a central resource for research on designing and building with wood.” We recommend checking out the research library as you sip your morning coffee.
See you next week!