Investigating the performance of the construction process of an 18-storey mass timber hybrid building

• Main Author: Kasbar, Mohamed
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2017
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/61433

The use of mass timber in high rise construction is an innovation. Mass timber construction has influential benefits including a lower overall construction time, a lower environmental impact, the use of renewable resource and an improved aesthetics. Despite the mentioned benefits, mass timber is not the traditional material for low to mid-rise commercial, institutional and residential construction in Canada. This is partially due to the need to explore the efficiency of mass timber construction relative to traditional construction. Detailed quantitative documentation of successful construction projects assists organisations planning mass timber high-rise projects by understanding and quantifying the advantages to ensure the viability of the construction process. This research project aims to understand the performance of mass-timber construction in the context of a construction manager, particularly the time saved due to completion of structural and envelope systems early. The case study chosen for this thesis is the tallest mass timber hybrid building in the world: Tallwood House. The research team studied the project in a macro-level perspective to investigate the building elements as single entities. Moreover, a micro-level study focuses on the performance of every level of the following elements: mass timber structure, envelope cladding systems and cross-laminated timber drywall encapsulation. The macro-level study investigates: (1) The production rate of the various building elements, (2) The coordination between structural trades to build a heavily pre-fabricated building using a single crane, and (3) The labor efforts per discipline. Moreover, the micro-level study investigates: (4) The variability of productivity of all levels, (5) A statistical investigation of three factors on cross-laminated timber installation, (6) Schedule reliability of preliminary planned schedule relative to the construction schedule (actual progress), (7) Earned value analysis, and (8) Planned percent complete to study the reliability of weekly work plans relative to construction schedules. All metrics were validated by the senior project manager through a discussion and confirmation of the inputs, findings and conclusions drawn. The claimed contribution of this research is an advanced state of knowledge about mass timber by exploring the efficiency of the construction process. === Applied Science, Faculty of === Civil Engineering, Department of === Graduate