Measuring Mass Timber

Research aims

The project aimed to develop a methodology for measuring the whole life carbon (WLC) and quality of life associated with mass timber buildings that is reasonably replicable and scalable in terms of scope and cost, giving a holistic impression of the ‘whole life value’ of mass timber buildings. The proposed method was applied to five case studies across a range of archetypes and sectors: an infrastructure building, a school, a housing scheme, a religious building and a commercial office.

Supporting the mass timber movement

The application of this method allowed the development of a sample dataset for real-world mass timber buildings, demonstrating how the method can produce insights that are engaging and relevant. Using this real-world application of the method, the team gained valuable lessons learnt and refined the recommendations for its adoption. This study enabled us to identify industry barriers in both the effective utilisation of mass timber and in applying as built WLC assessments and building performance evaluations more widely.