Design Solution · Materials Science
Design Solution · Dream about it
Glulam and wood-fibre to cut embodied carbon.
Timber structure with glulam beams and wood-fibre insulation lowers embodied carbon compared with masonry or steel, while the bio-based insulation also stores carbon. Choosing bio-based materials addresses embodied as well as operational carbon. It supports a whole-life net-zero ambition.
Using glulam structural beams alongside wood-fibre insulation addresses embodied carbon at two levels simultaneously — the structural frame and the thermal envelope — and the combination is coherent: both materials are bio-based, sequester carbon during growth, and carry lower manufacturing emissions than their conventional counterparts in steel or mineral wool. Wood-fibre insulation in particular has a well-established European track record in retrofit and new-build, with hygrothermal performance data supporting its use in well-designed vapour-open envelopes. Evidence state is claimed, and the specific embodied carbon savings depend on origin, transport distance and the carbon accounting methodology used — numbers can vary significantly with boundary conditions. The specifier's honest risk assessment needs to address three things: timber structural specification requires fire strategy integration from very early in the design process, not as an afterthought; wood-fibre insulation performs well in vapour-open wall constructions but requires careful detail design to avoid interstitial condensation risk in airtight assemblies; and supply chain resilience for FSC-certified structural timber remains geographically variable. The whole-life carbon argument is strong and increasingly well-evidenced across the sector, but the detail design demands are real and require specialist input at RIBA Stage 2.
#timber #wood fibre #embodied carbon