Industrial Buildings
Mass-Timber design systems for industrial buildings
Our MMT book is a guide to the mass-timber building systems available for various types of industrial development, their relative advantages, and how these structural frames can be adapted to meet changing demands. Here we explain how mass-timber can be used to meet a variety of specialized needs and functions, using both WTA case studies and a series of design concepts that we have recently developed for Stora Enso.
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Diagram of Stora Enso Warehouse
In this document we will be using the term ‘industrial’ to encompass buildings of varying uses, illustrating the inherent adaptability of mass-timber building systems. Using simple graphic guides, this document demonstrates how the open structure of load bearing mass-timber frames lends itself to the versatility of the internal floor space. The replicable elements of an engineered timber system cuts down on production and building time, leading to lower costs overall and a higher assurance in the timely completion of a building. In use, mass-timber makes for higher performing buildings, minimizing running costs and overheads.
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MMT Detail
As demonstrated in detail in this guide, the use of timber systems offers significant reduction in the net carbon of a building, with very little uplift in the overall cost. Despite only accounting for 15% of the building stock in the UK, industrial and commercial buildings are responsible for almost 15% of the nation’s energy use. Unlike residential units, commercial and industrial buildings typically cover a large surface area and incur a substantial building footprint, presenting the opportunity for significant carbon capture from a single building. In this document we explain the manifold advantages of building in mass-timber for contractors and clients alike, as a cost and a carbon sensitive way for companies to meet their ESG targets and substantially improve the working experience of their staff through the biophilic benefits of exposed timber.
In this document we showcase the different design concepts we have developed for industrial buildings using mass-timber and their many economic, human, and environmental advantages.