Sustainable mass timber industry evolving at MSU with potential to enhance Michigan’s economy

<p>“It was nice to be included,” says <a href="https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2022/director-of-masstimber-msu-sandra-lupien-named-a-notable-leader">Lupien</a>. “I recognized a lot of names on there and some folks whose work I've been following for years.</p><p>“Mass Timber is an umbrella term for a variety of engineered wood building construction materials. And typically, these are panelized materials and they're really large. Imagine a big beam made of layers of 2x4s laminated together in the shape of a steel I-beam so that you could use that instead of a steel I-beam in a large building. Or imagine a large panel, like a wall or a floor that's made of layers of 2x4s or 2x6s in opposing layers, stacked in layers that are in the opposite direction of one another. That's called cross-laminated timber. And you can drop that in to create a wall or a floor. So, these are big materials that are typically used in larger buildings.” </p><p>Why is Mass Timber a good fit for construction, like at the MSU <a href="https://share.transistor.fm/s/dff29e46">STEM Teaching and Learning Facility</a> that uses it extensively and has won many awards?</p><p>“The Michigan State University STEM Teaching and Learning facility opened in July, and it's the first building in Michigan to use mass timber for its structural system. The STEM Facility uses two types of mass timber. One is glue-laminated timber. Those are typically beams and columns. People who like buildings and know buildings will know that glue-laminated timber columns and beams aren't really new. They've been in use for a few decades here in the United States. And the building also uses cross-laminated timber, which are those big panels that I was talking about. And that's a newer technology that's just starting to emerge in North America.</p><p>“People are excited about mass timber for a variety of reasons, but the main driver behind the interest is the sustainability benefits of building with big wood in combination in hybrid models like we did in the STEM Facility