Mass Timber

Book excerpt: Mass Timber / Design and Research presents new research and design work with Mass Timber, a new construction technology, well-known in Europe, but relatively unfamiliar in the United States. Leading the Mass Timber design dialogue in the US, the author, Susan Jones, an architect in Seattle, Washington, has been pioneering the new, innovative use of wood over the past six years, since she built her own family's house from cross-laminated timber in 2015 in a neighborhood in Seattle. The book presents her Seattle firm, her family, and her University of Washington students' years of research and design. Opening with the story of three generations of her family's own sustainable forest practices, the book presents research into Pacific Northwest forestry, timber and Cross-Laminated Timber manufacturing practices, to carbon analysis and carbon comparisons between standard building construction assemblies and technologies; and concludes with the design of model buildings both designed and built by her firm, atelierjones and her University of Washington students: including a single-family house, a church, schools, multi-family housing, and a twelve-story Tall Timber Wood Innovation tower on the University of Washington campus in Seattle.