Mass timber will not become a mainstream building product because it uses too much wood, construction material expert Benjamin Kromoser claims in this

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2023-03-24 11:30:08

Mass timber will not become a mainstream building product because it uses too much wood, construction material expert Benjamin Kromoser claims in this interview for the Timber Revolution.

"If we go more in the direction of mass-timber buildings we don't have enough material, so the idea of scaling it up in the near future will fail," he told Dezeen.

"I think there will be a possibility to scale it up a bit, so its use will go up in the next few years – especially in Sweden and Norway, where they have built quite a lot of cross-laminated timber production facilities."

"But from my point of view, I think we will reach the maximum of mass timber in at least 10 years. I think, really, it will be before 2030."

Kromoser leads the Institute of Green Civil Engineering at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna, which receives funding from both industry and public sector organisations.

He believes that the main challenge for the building industry is using fewer raw materials overall, rather than simply switching from concrete and steel to biomaterials like wood.