Rosemary Brown Recreation Centre in Burnaby, BC. Photo by Ema Peter
Rosemary Brown Recreation Centre in Burnaby, BC. Photo by Ema Peter
For the Trees was published in BuildingGreen Issue 2: Deep Ecology. Take the quiz to earn 1 AIA LU/HSW.
In mass timber circles, it’s easy to see the world in two categories—projects that utilize it, and projects that don’t. For everyone else, it’s a pricey novelty in light of mainstream construction strategies. The thing is, that last sentence is incredibly contentious to the mass timber faithful, who dispel terms like “pricey” and “novelty,” and challenge the mainstream players still staring at the projections in Plato’s cave, and say that mass timber is more than a construction strategy: It’s a design ethic, too.
Mass derives from “massive” (probably an apocryphal origin story), but what’s important is that it’s distinct from mainstream dimensional lumber, and lots of people believe its potential as a solution for nearly any building type in most climates is, indeed, massive. Nominally, mass timber is a family of products that include the two most popular—prefabricated cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels and glued-laminated timber (glulam)—beams, created when pieces of a kiln-dried softwood like Douglas fir, cedar, pine and spruce are bonded together and layered, then pressed to form a rigid material.
The architect or builder specifies the elements they need by working closely with the manufacturer, who cuts them to order and fabricates them at the factory, and transports them to the job site, where they’re craned into place and assembled by a skilled contractor. The higher up-front costs associated with mass timber are usually related to how far the product has to travel to get to the job and the cost of a crane rental on-site. That cost can be recouped because the build time for mass timber is much shorter than conventional materials, so that means less time on-site—an attribute that shrinks the embodied carbon footprint of projects that utilize mass timber products, which sequester carbon in the first place.
But mass timber is more than the sum of its parts.
It’s messianic—driven by a vibrant subculture of architects, builders, installers and manufacturers. It’s measurable—mass timber’s proponents are committed to precisely calculating embodied carbon savings, from sourcing to installation. It’s also scalable—mass timber has successfully been deployed for both single-family and small multifamily residential projects in Europe and North America, as well as 25-story mixed-use towers like Ascent in Milwaukee, designed by Korb+Associates.
Arguably, the greatest exposure mass timber has enjoyed among the general public is for sports arenas and recreation centers, which draw hundreds of thousands of people each year. Among the most high-profile projects built within the last year is the Aquatiques Centre Paris, completed in 2024 and designed by VenhoevenCS and Ateliers 2/3/4, which debuted for the 2025 games and remained as a permanent natatorium for Saint Denis, one of the fastest-growing population centers for the metro region. Another high-profile arena is the Rosemary Brown Recreation Centre in Burnaby, British Columbia, designed by hcma architecture + design, featuring two indoor hockey rinks covering 92,000 square feet beneath a hybrid mass timber and steel roof.
As ascents go, mass timber’s rise has been rapid. Most of the media attention has gone to so-called “plyscrapers” that stand in Ascent’s shadow—84 tall timber buildings completed since 2009 worldwide that are eight stories or greater, utilizing timber alone or in conjunction with steel and/or concrete, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats. Another 50 are reportedly under construction today. Since 2009, in the U.S. alone, there have been 1,384 completed commercial, institutional and multifamily mass timber projects—and this last category is important. According to WoodWorks Wood Products Council, 360 of these completed projects have been multifamily residential. Among all mass timber projects six stories or greater in the design phase today, three quarters of them are multifamily. The market for mass timber is projected to more than double to reach 160 million cubic feet by 2032 (although the industry measures production in board feet), and its market is expected to be worth $3.7 billion by 2032, up from $1.5 billion at the beginning of this decade.
Market valuations aside, several individuals and organizations have generated momentum for mass timber. International model code changes—like the ones written by the architect Susan Jones on the strength of rigorous testing and trials—have been critical to mass timber’s success. So too have organizations such as the Softwood Lumber Board, which represents land owners, and programs such as WoodWorks, which offers industry guidance. Joining these are architecture firms large and small, from multinational corporate and institutional firms with thousands of employees and billions in revenue, to single-family residential studios with fewer than five employees—all of which have utilized mass timber for projects with every conceivable budget.
Momentum has come from bold designs that have been favorites of design’s media and its academy, improving mass timber’s acceptance rate among code officials along the way. Architect Shigeru Ban’s headquarters for TX Group (formerly Tamedia) in Zurich gained an exception from local authorities to build with timber (leaving it exposed, to boot), which pushed fire codes to allow low-rises, high-rises and skyscrapers two years after its completion in 2013. Public awareness of mass timber has grown, particularly as codes allow more of the building’s structure to be revealed in commercial and high-rise applications. The Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park and Museum of Rowan University, designed by Ennead Architects and KSS Architects, opened its doors this year in Mantua Township, New Jersey, as arguably the largest net-zero public-facing building in the state. It’s a showcase for one of the largest fossil deposits in the U.S., but its exposed mass timber throughout the building upstages the bones at every turn.
Architect Shigeru Ban’s headquarters for TX Group (formerly Tamedia) in Zurich. Photo by Didier Boy de la Tour
Geographically, start-up design-build firms across the U.S. and Canada have made North America the central testbed for mass timber in the last 15 years after small-scale experimentation in France, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. North American forests are twice as big in total land area as European forests, revealing another aspect of mass timber regarding resource management: Defining “renewable” is as important to observers as pursuing daring designs and pushing market imperatives. Arguably, defining renewable is even more important than projecting growth.
One 2023 Congressional Research Services (CRS) report on mass timber’s ascent agreed. “Development of mass timber products has the potential to change the role of wood in the U.S. construction industry,” wrote CRS analyst Anne Riddle. “Mass timber has therefore become part of a broader conversation about the role of timber markets in driving the extent, composition, health and management of forests.”
If the last 15 years has been about bold experimentation, code adoption and community building, from factories to final checklists, then the next 15 years may well be about keeping ambitions in balance with nature.
