Addressing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from buildings and infrastructure is critical to protect our planet from climate change. One potential strategy can be found in the methods and materials used to construct buildings, especially tall residential and commercial structures.

There have been recent changes in Canada’s National Building Code to include encapsulated mass timber construction (EMTC) and a lot of interest in encapsulated mass timber construction. For these reasons, this study was commissioned to develop comprehensive 7- to 12-storey archetypes for comparison of the potential methods and a means of construction in B.C. The goal was to examine the scope of activities involved during the production, distribution and installation of building components and systems, and the construction planning process of affordable, high performance multi-unit housing. There was also a focus on the financial viability of EMTC as a solution to address carbon emissions and energy use. Furthermore, the report explored GHG emissions in compliance with the requirements of the BC Energy Step Code and BC’s Zero Carbon Step Code.

The three building archetypes designed in this study were based on three unique bylaw and climatic regions. This enabled a reasonable comparison of costs between concrete, steel and EMTC. These regions included the cities of Vancouver, Coquitlam and Kamloops. The archetypes were developed to be compliant with the Vancouver Building By-Law, BC Building Code, and the BC Energy Step Code 3 and 4 as a minimum standard where applicable. Many of the design strategies developed in the three regional EMTC archetypes are specific solutions for improving building performance and durability. These solutions enable the best potential use of biogenic carbon as part of a complete carbon removal strategy.

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