Design Solution · Structural Systems
Design Solution · Dream about it
Brick shell with engineered-timber floors instead of a steel frame.
A masonry shell of load-bearing brick is combined with horizontal engineered-timber floors and roof and occasional precast lintels, avoiding a steel or concrete frame. The pairing keeps embodied carbon low while giving durability and warmth. It suits buildings expected to last for centuries.
Avoiding a steel or concrete frame by combining a load-bearing masonry shell with engineered-timber floors is a structural strategy with genuine low-carbon credentials: both materials can be sourced with well-understood supply chains, the combination is inherently reversible, and the thermal mass of the masonry shell works with rather than against passive comfort strategies. As a claimed solution without provided evidence, the record does not quantify embodied carbon savings against a steel-frame baseline, nor does it document structural performance under dynamic or seismic loads. The practical constraint a specifier must address is span: engineered-timber floor depths increase with span in a way that conflicts with storey-height budgets on tight-section commercial buildings, and the masonry shell demands either regular pier spacing or significant lintel engineering at openings. The combination is well-established on residential and civic buildings up to six or seven storeys and suits long-life briefs where programme and cost can absorb slower construction than a frame; it is harder to justify on deep-plan or high-occupancy buildings where span requirements and lateral loads push the structural logic back toward steel.
#mass timber #masonry #embodied carbon