Can mass timber help California build its way out of the housing crisis? - Archpaper.com:
Mass timber means using wood for the load-bearing structural components of buildings up to 18 stories high. California's housing costs are insanely high and there is a housing shortage. There aren't enough millionaires to buy the currently housing stock, apparently. Thoughts are turning to high-rise, high density residential construction made of wood.
1 comment:
I recently viewed a This Old House series from 2008, featuring pre-fab wood frame construction, as well as pre-fab concrete foundation walls. It was not at all what I expected. It was not cheap, shoddy manufactured homes.
If multifamily structures could be built in modules in a controlled factory environment, using computer assisted technology, the quality of construction and energey efficiency is likely to far surpass site-built construction. There could still be problems that occur at the assembly stage on site — and site preparation — but if the need for low skill and unskilled labor is limited, that should translate to fewer problems with shoddy and defective construction.
That could decrease cost of ownership and more affordable rents. Theoretically.
My concern would be flammability of wood vs. steel and concrete.
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