Innovation - Spring 2024

FEATURE

“The embodied carbon movement and understanding of sustainable construction is massive, and that’s largely why people drive towards mass timber structures,” said Robert Jackson, P. Eng., an engineer who contributed to the Brock Tallwood Commons project. BCBC increases height limits A series of updates to the BC Building Code 2024 (BCBC) , effective March 8, have extensively modified regulations around mass timber in buildings. The 2024 BCBC increases height limits to 18 storeys—up from 12 storeys—for mass timber residential and office buildings and permits mass timber in more building types, like schools and industrial facilities. The code also allows increased exposure of mass timber to the elements. Previously, mass timber had to be completely surrounded with fire-resistant materials, such as gypsum board, to be considered compliant; this was considered a subcategory of mass timber called encapsulated mass timber construction (EMTC). Now, buildings with limited encapsulation will also be allowed in low-rise residential buildings. These changes are nothing new for Jackson’s team, who underwent a special approvals process to create the 18-storey Brock Commons, when only six storeys was permitted in the BCBC . Their building Brock Commons is now cited as a basis for increased height allowances in the International Building Code and Canada’s National Building Code . “We’d certainly go higher,” said Jackson. “We’ve explored (hybrid mass timber-concrete options) of 40, 50, even 60 storeys.”

Brock Commons pushed the height limits for hybrid mass timber construction. Photo: KK Law/ Acton Ostry Architects

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Spring 2024

Innovation