Solarpunk

6630 readers

183 users here now

The space to discuss Solarpunk itself and Solarpunk related stuff that doesn't fit elsewhere.

What is Solarpunk?

Join our chat: Movim or XMPP client.

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

SteveKLord@slrpnk.net

ex_06@slrpnk.net

poVoq@slrpnk.net

144

Robots to build Canada’s 9-story timber tower in just 90 days (interestingengineering.com)

submitted 6 days ago by aka@lemm.ee to c/solarpunk@slrpnk.net

35 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Mass timer buildings are prefabricated structures made of (hopefully renewable) wood. The pieces are made in a factory and then able to be quickly constructed together on-site.

This can hopefully greatly reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere from producing a building. The cost of producing buildings in this method is also going down. Additionally, these mass timer buildings are typically more dense than single family homes, which can lead to more sustainable communities.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] exasperation@lemm.ee 4 points 6 days ago

Not exactly. "Mass timber" is a newer construction material made from wood, but put together in a way suitable for tall buildings, including structural elements for skyscrapers. Currently, the tallest timber skyscraper is the 25-story Ascent MKE building in Milwaukee.

The fire safety challenges are real, though. It's just that timber as a building material has different characteristics. It's under a lot of study from fire safety researchers, as they work out the tradeoffs and how to best mitigate the weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

And it's not all bad. Timber is actually stronger than steel at high heat, and the beams don't contain voids that allow fire and flames to travel along the structural elements as steel or concrete elements might. So the key is that the engineers need to design things with the timber's properties in mind.