“We move so quickly that we’ll be still finishing a building and we’ve already got a completely different way of thinking about how we would design the structure going forward.”
As the leading mass timber solution provider for the Asia Pacific region, XLam is both a design services consultancy and a specialist sub-contractor which holds Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) at its core. “CLT is a relatively new technology that’s only been commercialised for about 30 years,” he says. “It’s a monolithic structural building material made from a renewable resource: Radiata pine or other plantation forestry. It allows us to build a structure in a factory environment so that when we get to site we can build incredibly quickly with next-to-no waste and only about 20% of the mass of traditional monolithic concrete structures. It’s also a ‘green’ material in that it actually sequesters carbon. It locks that CO2 in the building, as opposed to creating an emission pathway like most other building materials. This allows you to design and build climate-clean structures.”
An architect by training, John has been exposed to the building sector his whole life. “My parents were both in leadership positions in the industry, so it came naturally for me to gravitate to those kinds of roles. There was also a massive drive around branded specification in New Zealand right after I finished my architecture degree. I was able to observe through my parents’ work that there were all these different manufacturers not understanding what architects needed in terms of documentation and specification to get their materials and systems specified. I saw how much it frustrated architects that they couldn’t get the information they needed from manufacturers. I sort of fell into that space and I’ve been working with manufacturers now for the last decade trying to fill that void.”
Through XLam, John works on up to 100 projects at any given time on aspects ranging from building code and certification to illustration and content design. As industry-leaders in the space, they’re also working hard to build a community around mass timber construction, John says. “We get asked all the time by clients who to choose as the architect or engineer for a timber building. We’re eager to celebrate those trail-blazing architects, engineers and builders that have experience with this more sustainable and better quality approach to construction.”
John admits, though, that sustainability has not always been a driver in his career. “I’d describe myself as materially agnostic,” he says. “Even though I work for the largest mass timber manufacturer in the southern hemisphere, I know it also takes concrete, steel, aluminium and glass to build a building. I love the material that I’m working with and I can see all the benefits that it brings, but I’ve never built anything out of just one material. To me, sustainability is more of an interesting design problem: how do I design this building to be carbon-neutral?”
Mass timber will play a significant role in the future of the industry, he predicts, with the New Zealand Government now looking to get the building code climate-ready. “As a country, we don’t change the building code often, so a change like this in the works is going to be significant. Then we have to look at how that scales up. All mass timber production – not just CLT – will need to manage that scaling. Planting a billion tress and then changing the legislation to require green house gas calculations in the design phase are both fantastic things to be doing. But, if you imagine it as an hourglass, the critical piece is this constricted pipe between the billion trees and designing all these buildings that are climate-clean. That is our manufacturing sector which could become resource-constrained very quickly. That’s where we need to be making really good investments as a country around the digitisation of our existing manufacturing, updating some of our older manufacturing plants and building new plants. We don’t see any new sawmills opening, only old ones closing. If and when there is a legislative change, our manufacturing capability will need to scale at an enormous rate.”
As advice for other industry professionals who are considering making the leap to mass timber, John’s suggestion is to view it as a journey. “If you’ve been building with concrete all your life and then you decide to build something entirely out of mass timber, that’s going to be painful. Start introducing mass timber to your design through something like CLT floor-plates with a traditional steel post and beam structure, or a concrete structure where you just introduce timber lift cores, stair cores and landings. The same is true for the builder. Programme the very first one like a ‘normal’ building and any efficiency wins you get, just take them as wins. By your second build you’ll know where you can get some efficiencies. Programme them in. And by the time you get to your third, you’ll be actively hunting for mass timber builds to do because you won’t want to build any other way.”
“If you don’t like what we’re doing now, give it 6 weeks.”
It’s a challenge in an industry where clients want everything yesterday, John says, to convince the sector to come along for the knowledge journey. This is why XLam continues to work on education around Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA), and encourages industry professionals to engage and get advice early in the process. Over the next 12-18 months, XLam’s focus is to develop the design engagement and installation aspects of the business to support their well-established CLT manufacturing. “2020 was a time to batten down the hatches and weather the pandemic but now we’re back in growth mode. We really want to expand the perception of what XLam can do.”
To learn more about John’s work with XLam, connect through LinkedIn, Instagram or get in touch directly at enquiries@xlam.co.nz.
