Report on mass timber use highlights benefits
Findings from a two-year research study demonstrate environmental and quality of life benefits.
The Measuring Mass Timber project presents research led by architecture practice dRMM, conducted in collaboration with Edinburgh Napier University and the Quality of Life Foundation, involving a new analysis methodology.
The methodology was developed through an overview of industry best practice, with a goal to assess the quality of life and whole-life carbon impacts of five case study projects across different sectors.
These are UK buildings for education, infrastructure, worship, residential and commercial uses.
According to the report, mass timber is a readily available option to help achieve embodied carbon targets, while the quality of life assessment of the case study buildings show benefits healthwise. Each building was subject to detailed lifecycle analysis, internal environment monitoring and user consultation over the two-year study.
dRMM believes this could be seen as a first step in building an evidence-driven case for timber construction using whole-life carbon and wellbeing metrics in combination, supporting DEFRA’s goal of ‘improving data on timber and whole-life carbon’.
The study offers an open-source tool for developers and designers to measure the impacts of their buildings.
