Cross-laminated timber is no longer experimental. Here's what we learned delivering a full timber office campus.
When we set out to build a commercial office campus almost entirely from cross-laminated timber, plenty of people told us it couldn't be done at a competitive cost. They were wrong — but only just.
The single biggest lesson is that mass timber rewards early decisions. Because panels are prefabricated off-site to millimetre tolerances, the design must be resolved far earlier than in a concrete equivalent. Changes on site are expensive and slow.
The payoff is remarkable. Our timber frame went up in nine weeks with a fraction of the site labour, waste and noise of a traditional build. Embodied carbon fell by 40%, and tenants consistently comment on the warmth and calm of the exposed timber interiors.
Mass timber has come of age. The firms that master it now will define the next decade of low-carbon commercial construction.
Marcus Chen
Marcus Chen is a member of the Vertica team, sharing insights and perspectives from across the studio.
