With more concern being placed upon building sustainability, mass timber is emerging as a renewable construction material with high durability and versatility that can add significant value to a building.
Once used modestly, mass timber has increasingly become a primary material of choice thanks to technological advancements. Canada building codes are changing to allow for taller structures made predominantly of mass timber, opening the way for some of the most innovative, beautiful, and sustainable structures our cities have ever known.
RJC provides creative structural wood solutions, encouraging their dedicated wood specialists to engage in research, development and outreach with both the design and construction industries.
Here are some examples of buildings designed and built with mass timber.
Clayton Community Centre
The Clayton Community Centre in Surrey, British Columbia is a 78,000 sq. ft., two-storey building. It features a library, gymnasium, fitness centre, art spaces, childcare, and more under a heavy timber roof that is a reciprocating frame composed of an assembly of pinwheel shaped modules of glulam beams. This two-way wood system approach allows the wood structure to span to columns with no need for dropped beams, achieving a unique and fascinating architectural expression. The Centre has achieved the Passive House energy standard and is anticipated to be one of the largest Passive House buildings of this type in North America.
TRCA Administrative Building
The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority’s (TRCA) new headquarters in Toronto, Ontario focuses on sustainable design through its mass timber construction and other design features. The project is targeting Net Carbon Zero, LEED Platinum Status, Toronto Green Standard Level 2, and Well Silver Certification, and looks to achieve these certifications because of its incorporation of sustainable designs like water walls, solar chimneys, and a highly efficient and sustainable building envelope system.
80 Atlantic
Also located in Toronto, 80 Atlantic is the first mass timber commercial building to be constructed in Toronto in over a century. It is comprised of cast-in-place concrete to the second floor and the next four floors constructed of Nail-Laminated Timber floor deck supported by glulam columns and beams. Exposed mass timber structural elements showcase the beauty of the wooden construction.
80 Atlantic features retail, support, and lobby space on the ground floor and office space in the upper floors, with the final product being a mass timber construction and design for office use, a visually appealing building layout, while remaining cost-effective and promoting sustainable construction practices.
“As both a structural and decorative element, timber provides a warm and natural aesthetic unlike anything else on the market,” says Mark Ritchie, a Principal with RJC Engineers.
RJC has an ongoing commitment to sustainable design, and these buildings are just some examples of the projects completed by the company. They show some of the possible utilizations of mass timber in construction projects and implement the safety, versatility, beauty, durability, and sustainability of wood.
Learn more about the benefits of wood design.
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Company Name: Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd (RJC)
Contact Person: Calgary RJC
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Phone: 403-283-5073
Country: Canada
Website: https://www.rjc.ca/