Tall wood guide to help designers/owners meet regulatory and market conditions
The updated 2022 edition of the Technical Guide for the Design and Construction of Tall Wood Buildings in Canada, published by FPInnovations, includes learnings and insights gained from recently built tall wood projects; highlights from the most recent building codes and standards; and research findings to help achieve the best environmental, structural, fire, and durability performance of mass timber products and systems. This edition of the guide replaces the first edition (2014), which was developed to support the Natural Resources Canada Tall Wood Building Demonstration Initiative.
This multi-disciplinary, peer-reviewed guide is an essential resource for mass timber construction and hybrid, tall wood buildings design and construction.
Regulatory changes
Substantial regulatory changes have been included in the 2020 edition of the National Building Code of Canada such as the addition of encapsulated mass timber construction of up to 12 storeys and the early adoption of the related provisions by several provinces.
The updated edition of the Guide includes comprehensive information on these regulatory changes, and it expands on the 12-storey mass timber gravity systems as an acceptable solution. It also targets supporting alternative solutions that will enable wood buildings to be taller than 12 storeys.
Topics include
- Approaches to maximizing the benefits of prefabrication and building information modelling, which collectively result in fast, clean, and quiet project delivery
- Methods for addressing limitations controlled by fire requirements (through an alternative solution)
- Seismic requirements (using a hybrid solution/acceptable solution in steel or concrete)
- Best practices for mass timber construction to meet higher performance requirements of the Energy Step Codes
- What makes building with wood a positive contribution toward tackling climate change
