Developers are increasingly finding that using wood building systems and prefabricated wood-frame components to construct high-performance buildings saves them both time and money while the offering more in regards to beauty, performance, and versatility, and resulting in more organised and timely building periods.
And these benefits are seen in some of the more recent building projects in Vancouver, British Columbia (B.C.), Canada, with wood construction paving the way for sustainable innovation in the building industry while also offering residents natural beauty and lowering energy costs, according to Business Vancouver.
The King Edward Villa in Vancouver, for example, is located in a densely populated urban area that required much of the construction and prefabrication to be done offsite, bringing down the amount of time needed for construction. But the degree of prefabrication seen would only have been possible with wood.
“The use of prefabricated structural elements enabled us to complete the framing on this building in just two months,” Richard Wong, owner of the King Edward Villa said. “The superior grade of the materials used, and the precision of the components meant we got a higher quality building at a competitive cost.”
Thus far, estimates have shown that prefabricated wood-frame structures save 15 to 20 per cent in cost savings as compared to other building materials.
Presently, wood is the sole renewable building material that is available to developers. But not only is there abundant wood in B.C. – and the province is the global leader in sustainable forest management – but the materials also stores carbon, can be recycled, and is biodegradable.
For instance, according to Business Vancouver, the carbon the King Edward Villa is capable of storing is the equivalent of taking 575 cars off the road annually. But it is this kind of positive environmental impact that is driving some developers in Vancouver to use wood to construct new building projects.
Wood’s natural characteristics not only brings beauty and warmth to its surroundings – surroundings have shown that using wood in buildings is linked to positive health benefits for occupants as well – research has found that wood is able to reduce stress in people, leading to lower blood pressure, heart rates, and aggression.
And as more developers are beginning to integrate wood into their building projects, construction periods that are timely, environmentally-friendly, as well as cost-effective are becoming more and more commonplace.
Source: Business Vancouver
