Inside Vancouver's Brock Commons, World's Tallest Mass Timber Building (2017) | Hacker News Reader

Inside Vancouver's Brock Commons, World's Tallest Mass Timber Building (2017)

archdaily.com

31 pointsmontrose15 comments

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How is this building protected against termites and other wood eating pests?

I can't provide a specific answer but the whole field of Engineered Lumber works on these problems.

The speed of construction is due to prefab wood. Prefab concrete would be just as fast or faster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwvmru5JmXk

It has nothing to do with wood. Wood could be easier on the environment though.

Prefabrication requires a higher level of design maturity as opposed to traditional construction and from my anecdotal experience this can provide a significant increase in speed itself.

I did a quick search to determine if cities built from wooden structures can act as carbon sinks and I came across this great overview of the carbon footprint of wood buildings[0]. Granted it was created by a special interest group.

0- PDF http://www.awc.org/pdf/education/gb/ReThinkMag-GB500A-Evalua...

Much better link: http://vancouver.housing.ubc.ca/residences/brock-commons/

So when the building was complete, what were the final costs relative to an equivalent steel and concrete structure? The video said construction took 9-1/2 weeks but there was a lot of pre-planning, mock ups, etc. that wouldn't have necessarily been needed for the steel version. Those extra costs need to be factored in as well, at least until enough experience has been gathered to no longer require it.

It was finished in 2016, after eight months.

According to this article: https://biv.com/article/2016/09/crews-complete-structure-rec...

"The $51.5 million structure is on budget, and Metras expects any future buildings to cost less, as the Brock Commons budget also includes $4.45 million from external agencies to cover first-time costs of using mass timber on such a scale."

There's another site I won't visit again. (modal popup to subscribe before I can even see the page)

That was quite interesting, particularly the videos. Lots of use of pretty innovative techniques - 3d modelling, just in time delivery during construction, CNC for structural members & pre-fab parts (high precision for construction industry)

T3 in Minneapolis feels much nicer! https://www.archdaily.com/802831/t3-michael-green-architectu...

Short. Looks like an office building, not residential: no balconies. (Do the windows even open? Good luck trying to feel good when HVAC is down.)

No ocean/mountain views.

Not to say this building isn't great, but are those two internal towers in the third image made of concrete there? Is that so to make the elevator shafts (fire resistant)?

Yes that's the code. They have to use a reinforced concrete structure that is earthquake resistant. It houses the elevators, the stair cases, and utilities. It's pretty standard everywhere for tall building.

Elevators are also long moving mechanical systems that need extreem reliability to be useful. There is still a place for the stability and rigidity of metal in such systems.

it is pretty misleading to call it a timber building, there are clearly two concrete and steel cores there.

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