From forest to sawmill, to artisans and finally to the construction site, timber buildings evoke a modesty linked to generations of builders. Dry joinery, steel anchors, bolts and a plethora of other fasteners, including the earliest iron cut nail, have made it possible to create both grand and vernacular structures. Recent advantages in engineered timber products complement enduring principles to elevate timber's advantages without some of the dimensional nuisances, distortions and changes associated with sawn lumber.
Glulam and cross laminated timber (CLT) in particular have become synonymous with a type of precise kit-of-parts construction where elements are shaped to sizes as well as complex profiles and assembled to generate variable forms with the robust technical characteristics generally associated with steel or reinforced concrete, but without the carbon footprint of these energy intensive materials.
The kit-of-parts approach to timber construction based on digital manufacturing of detailed building components reduces waste by optimizing offsite methodologies and delivering only necessary elements to site. Further, mass manufacturable and scalable with a high strength to weight ratio, cross laminated timber is being deployed in projects as a potential alternative to concrete flat slab systems common to fireproof multistory buildings.
Staging the mass customization and adaptability potentials of CLT, Nordic Structures, a Canadian producer and supplier recently produced modular volumetric CLT boxes in the Northern community of Chibougamau, Québec located approximately 500 km north of Montréal. Les Pavillons du 49° designed by Montreal-based studio Perch architects was fostered by Nordic's local vertical supply chain, from forest to panel to module to delivery, to erect this first example of modular volumetric CLT in the company's portfolio. It only took four days to stack the 47 factory produced modules. A total of 20 rental units, each organized from at least two CLT mega chunks delivered with exterior cladding, leaving weatherproofing and stitching to be finalized on site. Large balconies along with dynamic window placement were used strategically as arrangements to avoid the modular box type architecture sometimes associated with modular volumetric.
Nordic Structures, Les pavillons du 49° during module setting and construction
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