Mobilizing Mass Timber

Mass timber continues to gain traction in the United States as a construction technology that can support economic and environmental sustainability goals, however, its application has remained limited to a narrow range of projects perceived as prestige facilities. Leveraging our practical experience implementing mass timber on some of the largest projects in the Mid-Atlantic region, KSS Architects is exploring further avenues for mass timber in the wider market.

Explore mass timber with us. 

Structural Strengths

Mass timber is an engineered wood product with structural strength comparable to concrete and steel, offering significant sustainability benefits. Unlike traditional wood, it is manufactured as a kit of parts that accelerates construction, improves user experience, and meets clients' environmental goals. Especially valuable on constrained urban job sites, mass timber enables construction to be completed up to 25% faster with 90% less traffic, and its flexibility allows for easier modifications and quick material turnaround when needed.

Biophilic Design

Responding to our innate human tendency to seek out connections to nature, the use of wood has been proven to increase user wellness by reconnecting individuals in the built environment with nature, which can reduce absenteeism and stress.

Connecting those working in a digital world back to the natural world is a key design element to Penn Engineering’s Amy Gutmann Hall, Data Science & AI Building. The building is the first mass timber project for the University of Pennsylvania, and the first six-story mass timber building in the City of Philadelphia. The system both reduces the building’s embodied carbon footprint by 52% relative to concrete and 41% relative to steel and creates a warm, tactile and welcoming environment. Additionally, "during the procurement and construction phases, early procurement of mass timber provided cost certainty during a period of overall market fluctuations and an efficient construction process in the tight urban site,” explains Becker Raab, Associate.

Mass Timber is strategically deployed in public spaces for the Edelman Fossil Park & Museum of Rowan University, New Jersey’s first carbon-neutral museum. Glued-laminated timber beams, columns, and roof decking were incorporated into spaces that will improve visitor experience, such as the lobby, café, and outdoor veranda, adding warmth and connection to the outdoors while supporting the museum’s sustainability goals, messaging, and mission to protect the future by understanding the past.

“The project demonstrates that mass timber can be used successfully in a public bid procurement process, which doesn’t typically allow us to engage the timber supplier in the design-phase, a step often touted as a key to success when using mass timber. The design team strategically designed and specified the mass timber to allow for flexibility during the construction phase while achieving the design intent,” shares Jesse Wilks, Associate.

Sustainability

Not all timber is sustainable, so knowing where and how its timber is sourced, managed, and processed has a huge impact on whether it qualifies as a sustainable material. Forests that are properly managed and attain their FSC label are the gold standard, but other systems exist to help evaluate the management practices of potential suppliers and manufacturers.

When considering the total carbon emissions of a building over its lifecycle, it is important to take into consideration the embodied carbon locked into materials such as wood, concrete or timber; this is different from the operational carbon emitted by running the building. Because embodied carbon is released upfront, it's an area where we can have immediate impact — especially as buildings become more energy-efficient and operational emissions decrease. Reducing embodied carbon involves using low-carbon materials such as mass timber, reusing existing structures or components, and designing with durability and longevity in mind.

How Is KSS Approaching Mass Timber?

KSS is taking an incremental approach to including mass timber in projects – adding mass timber where and when we can to builds in place of traditional materials like concrete or steel. We believe any decarbonization measure is a positive step. The use of steel, concrete, and plastics will never go away completely, but we can significantly reduce the amount we use by transitioning to wood where comparable and increasing recycled content and material innovations.

To further analyze how mass timber can be incorporated into the wider market, KSS, DCI Engineers, and RC Andersen recently completed a study exploring how hybrid structural systems can can reduce embodied carbon in industrial buildings.

Our team systematically tested replacing steel and concrete components with mass timber elements in a prototypical industrial building. Each option is analyzed incrementally, with an additional element swapped for mass timber until all components are shown as wood. Through this iterative process, we have identified the sweet spot to minimize carbon footprint and meet market demands for clear heights and spans in an economically feasible manner. Ultimately this case study is intended to serve as an example of how projects can quickly iterate and help clients determine utilizing mass timber early on in the process while comparing cost/benefit analysis.

“Although wood is a long-standing building material, mass timber represents an emerging construction technology in the U.S., often reserved for high-profile, prestige projects. Through our built work, we've helped dispel myths, tackle implementation challenges, and demonstrate its versatility across diverse applications. We see mass timber as a powerful tool to advance a broad spectrum of design and sustainability goals, and we're actively exploring its use in new contexts—including industrial buildings—to unlock its full potential," shares Mayva Donnon, partner. 

Mass timber is an innovative construction technology that offers designers new tools to align with economic, environmental, and social sustainability goals. We have learned a few lessons through its implementation on our projects, reach out to see how KSS can help you meet the mass timber moment on your projects.