Ambitious challenges require innovative solutions, which the United Kingdom is banking on to reach some of the most ambitious construction and housing targets in decades.
An announcement in late July called for 1.5m houses to be constructed over the next five years, in order to ensure that everyone has a place to live and to revitalise communities that have stagnated or fallen apart due to a lack of focus on the future of an area.
However, this announcement, which amounts to roughly 370,000 houses a year or over 1000 every single day, will require not only investment and modifications to the planning system but an embrace of newer, greener construction methods.
In this regard, the revival and evolution of timber construction as a sustainable, highly advanced method of constructing homes has come at precisely the right time, as structural mass timber could form the key to meeting exceptionally intense targets.
More Homes, Less Time
Outside of regulatory and planning aspects that occur at a higher level than most actual construction and development projects, one of the aspects that can slow down construction projects is the nature of the materials used.
With projects constructed using concrete, brick and mortar, there is a lot of time and energy required to mix the cement, apply it and leave it to dry and cure, often adding several weeks or even months to a construction project depending on the scope and scale.
Timber framing does not have this issue because so much of the work is done at the fabrication stage. Mass timber is manufactured, cut to size and taken to the site, where the main work that needs to be done is assembling and attaching the pieces together.
This can reduce the amount of time it takes to build an average-sized home from weeks to less than a week, although the actual timescales can vary dramatically depending on the needs of the particular project.
A big reason for this is that much of the construction process does not take place on-site, as it would when using concrete, but instead can be done at a workshop.
Being suitable for mass production allows for housing developments to be created and completed much more quickly than they would using other materials, with an exceptional level of precision.
This allows for homes to physically be constructed quicker, which when the targets are this substantial will make a huge difference.
Existing Technology, Existing Capacity
There are several potential ways to make affordable housing quicker, easier, cheaper and more sustainably, but one of the best ways of doing so right away requires the use of sustainably sourced structural mass timber.
According to the Structural Timber Association, there is capacity in the sector already to build 100,000 homes every year, which is a third of the target and a substantial leap forward.
However, by taking the proven technology and existing capacity, but pushing further with both, there is the potential to significantly increase this figure dramatically.
One massive benefit to timber frame construction is that it relies on less equipment and is easier to train a construction contractor to do.
As the kit house industry proved in the 20th century, it is very possible with basic tools for someone who is not in the construction industry to learn to construct a wooden house that they can pick out of a catalogue.
Whilst the best results still come from a timber specialist, there is far greater potential in expanding this sector than relying on other established construction methods that require greater training and use materials that inherently take longer to construct.
There are many elements to making more affordable housing, but choosing materials that are easy to work with, affordable and sustainable are important first steps.
Less Waste
The main difference between the kit house era and modern timber construction is the rise of engineered wood, which allows for most of the wood that is harvested to be used effectively in construction to provide highly effective structural rigidity.
This means that there is a lot less waste in timber construction than in other industries, and the less waste there is, the lower the environmental and carbon cost of using the material.
Timber is carbon neutral and can even be carbon negative as a construction material depending on the whole-life carbon cost and the emissions caused in the harvesting and transportation process.
As well as this, wood is an excellent insulator, saving homeowners on their heating bills and reducing waste energy.