Slabs of wood this large can match or exceed the performance of concrete and steel. (At this point, the size of slabs is restricted less by manufacturing limitations than by transportation limitations.)

Stacking boards together this way can create large slabs, up to a foot thick and as large as 18-feet-long by 98-feet-wide, though the average is something more like 10 by 40. To create CLT, lumber boards that have been trimmed and kiln-dried are glued atop one another in layers, crosswise, with the grain of each layer facing against the grain of the layer adjacent. But the most common and most familiar form of mass timber, the one that has opened up the most new architectural possibilities, is cross-laminated timber (CLT). Mass timber is a generic term that encompasses products of various sizes and functions, like glue-laminated (glulam) beams, laminated veneer lumber (LVL), nail-laminated timber (NLT), and dowel-laminated timber (DLT). Yes, the hottest thing in architecture this century amounts to вЂњwood, but like Legos.вЂќ In a nutshell, it involves sticking pieces of soft wood - generally conifers like pine, spruce, or fir, but also sometimes deciduous species such as birch, ash, and beech - together to form larger pieces. The hype is focused on structural timber or, as itвЂ™s more popularly known, вЂњmass timberвЂќ (short for вЂњmassive timberвЂќ). However, a new way of using wood has put the material back in the spotlight. Trees have been used to build structures since prehistory, but especially after disasters like the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, wood came to be seen as unsafe and unstable relative to the two materials that have since become staples of the construction industry worldwide: concrete and steel. Architects, builders, and sustainability advocates are all abuzz over a new building material they say could substantially reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the building sector, slash the waste, pollution, and costs associated with construction, and create a more physically, psychologically, and aesthetically healthy built environment.

Laminated steel used intools