he most commercially viable solid timber solution for the determined market with a road map for implementation (e.g. ensure the supply of sufficient wood necessary to deliver prefabricated panellised systems in high quantity).
Ensure longevity of the implemented strategy via suitable up-skilling of industry professionals (from architects and engineers to builders) via continuous professional development (CPD) activities.
Establish the production of a standardized quality assurance process for fabrication, details for construction and the creation of technical specification literature.
Establish a green supply chain for domestic CLT panel manufacturing; instigating a strategy for the suitable uptake of CLT system fabrication in Australia relative to market requirements, available technology and wood resources.
Support the Australian design, construction and timber industries in the uptake and adoption of emerging engineered timber technologies.
Advance evidence-based policy and practices through a user-centred approach to housing occupancy evaluation and effective understanding of feedback.
Implement zero waste concepts with detailed targets for the construction sector, doing away with construction waste going to landfill.
Make embodied energy and resource/material efficiency a key focus of government policy, setting minimum standards of efficiency that buildings must meet.
Encourage all levels of government to take the lead in innovative construction, by leasing CLT high-rise buildings and by implementing a grant scheme for construction of such buildings.
Produce peer-reviewed published work ensuring market and product confidence including worldwide dissemination of standardized information on engineered timber.
Publish a technical handbook and associated launch event with a conference on solid cross-laminated timber production and construction (e.g. the technical barrier is not structural, but the high fire requirements).
In this paper the author has assessed the potential contribution of CLT construction to the creation of innovative and long-lasting housing types to increase the urban density of existing cities. This alternative approach is grounded in concepts of both environmental and social responsibility. Since timber is a material that has the capacity to store carbon it offers the opportunity for carbon engineering, to turn buildings into ‘carbon sinks’. The negative environmental legacy of conventional ‘hard’ development and construction could be minimized by using CLT construction on brownfield sites. Inner-city housing using highly engineered timber construction also offers the opportunity to re-establish more meaningful concepts of material culture and enduring value, thus underpinning a more profound notion of society itself.
There are in any type of restructuring some short-term costs, but there is an impressive array of benefits that can accrue from the transition to low carbon timber construction systems, such as healthier living and working conditions. Long-term benefits associated with a transition to a low carbon economy are now becoming clear . It’s time to grab the considerable opportunities that are opening up in front of us. Supported by the rapid developments in CNC-technology, prefabricated engineered solid wood panel systems are now a cost competitive technology for 3 to 10 storeys residential structures, replacing concrete and steel construction, reducing ecological footprint, and delivering healthy indoor environments of future buildings.
One conclusion that can already be drawn from the cases is that issues around the adoption of CLT in residential construction are worthwhile of further detailed study. The interrelated mix of technological and social considerations required will provide a mature perspective on the complexities of influencing behaviour change in this domain.
The expected research findings are likely to also provide insight in the question of how far the consumer factors are relevant to moving towards increased use of CLT for buildings, or if the barriers are really about valu