The construction industry accounts for 38% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.1 And without intervention, climate breakdown and biodiversity loss will continue to accelerate. In response to this crisis, architects worldwide have begun signing up for ‘Architects Declare‘. Launched in 2019, Architects Declare is a global movement aimed at reducing both embodied and operational resource use. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that since its launch, the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry has seen a significant uplift in mass timber buildings due to its high carbon sequestration value. However, this case study explores in depth another benefit of using mass timber, the ability to adopt Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) and to achieve this at scale via automation.
Mass timber
Mass timber, sometimes referred to as engineered wood, is ‘a range of composite wood products that utilise state-of-the-art technology to bind or fix the…