Is Mass Timber the Future?

About the event

The widespread enthusiasm for mass timber is evident, and for good reason. Companies are pivoting to mass timber to reduce their carbon footprint, provide biophilic benefits to the building occupants, increase the speed of construction, reduce onsite labor and frankly just to create beautiful architecture. I will discuss the rapid growth of this industry, the attributes and challenges of this new way of building,  and share experiences over the past ten years of my career that have been primarily focused on mass timber. This is a movement that is on an exponential growth curve and it is critical to the industry that academia rise to the occasion to embrace the next generation of architects, engineers and builders who will be responsible for its success.

Note: This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Building Technologies Office (BTO) Award Number DE-EE0009746.

About the speaker:

Craig Curtis is a nationally recognized design leader with a focus on innovative, sustainable integrated design and the incorporation of emerging building technologies including cross-laminated timber (CLT), mass timber and modular construction. With strong listening skills and a highly collaborative approach, he leads interdisciplinary teams on developer driven multifamily, workplace and mixed-use projects. Craig also serves in a firmwide role, sharing knowledge across the practice and collaborating with teams on a wide range of project typologies for clients looking to explore the integration of new building technologies. He is a frequent design awards juror and architectural studio critic, supporting the advancement of architectural practice and development of next generation talent.