Reusing wood from demolition in mass timber products

As part of the 果冻影院 Festival of Engineering 2024, the Circular Economy lab is exhibiting a pilot building demonstrating new materials developed at 果冻影院.

The pilot brings our bio-based, circular economy research to life. We have sourced timber that would otherwise have entered demolition waste streams and been chipped and incinerated or downcycled. The timber has instead been prepared for reuse and manufactured into 鈥榞lued-laminated secondary timber鈥� (glulamST), as the building's structural frame, and 鈥榗ross-laminated secondary timber鈥� (CLST), as wall and floor panels.

Product Passports:

Materials from demolition, currently treated as waste, present opportunities for new forms of reuse. CLST and glulamST are examples. Our research was the first to examine this way of reusing timber. Although researchers in various parts of the world are building on the topic, this will be, to our knowledge, the first building-scale demonstration.

This innovation provides a low-carbon alternative to structural materials such as concrete, steel and masonry. Retaining timber as a structural building component increases the built environment's capacity as a long-term store for sequestered carbon 鈥� whereas incinerating timber releases the carbon captured by trees back into the atmosphere. CLST and glulamST have a fully traceable, local, socially fair supply chain. Implemented at scale, this circular system drives new employment opportunities in reclamation and manufacturing close to cities.

As well as reusing second-hand materials, the building is modular and reusable. During the Festival of Engineering, it is being exhibited in the Yard outside 果冻影院 Here East (10-17 July), where manufacturing took place, and then at 果冻影院鈥檚 Bloomsbury Campus (Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, 17-20 July). Connections are designed to facilitate future disassembly, upgrade and reuse.听Product passports听maintain a digital record of key information, stored on听 platform. When no further reuse is possible, the timber can still be recycled into panel products (e.g. chipboard or MDF) and then finally incinerated for energy.

The project has been carried out in partnership with Portakabin, and with the support of a range of brilliant collaborators. Since 1961, Portakabin has been at the forefront of construction innovation, pioneering modular construction as a smarter way to build. Over the years, the company has changed, adapted, and grown, but always with the aim of making a better future by reusing and repurposing its products and buildings. As the world faces enormous climate challenges, Portakabin is preparing to play its part by looking at new and innovative ways to increase circularity in its business model.

In-kind support has been gratefully received from:

Project collaborators:

This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Research papers

Dong, W., Rose, C.M., Stegemann, J.A., 2024, Cross-Laminated Secondary Timber: Validation of Non-destructive Assessment of Structural Properties by Full-scale Bending Tests. Engineering Structures:听.
Romero, A., Rose, C.M., Stegemann, J.A., 2020, Quantification of material stocks in existing buildings using secondary data鈥擜 case study for timber in a London Borough. Resources, Conservation & Recycling:听.
Rose, C.M., Stegemann, J.A., 2019, Feasibility of Cross-Laminated Secondary Timber, in: Claisse, P., Ganjian, E., Naik, T. (Eds.), Fifth International Conference on Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies (SCMT5), Coventry, UK: Vol. 1, pp. 495-507.听听.
Rose, C.M., Bergsagel, D., Dufresne, T., Unubreme, E., Lyu, T., Duffour, P., Stegemann, J.A., 2018, Cross-Laminated Secondary Timber: Experimental Testing and Modelling the Effect of Defects and Reduced Feedstock Properties. Sustainability.听.

Other publications

Rose, C.M., Isaac, P., 2024, Reusing wood from demolition in mass timber products, in: The Structural Engineer: 102, 6, 36-38,听.
Morales Rapallo, A.C., Doostdar, M., Rose, C.M., et al., 2024, D4.2听. Available from:听听(accessed 12 July 2024).
Rose, C.M., 2024, Ask the expert: Timber reuse, in: Architecture Today.听May/June, 78. Available from:听听(accessed 12 July 2024).
Rose, C.M., 2020. Waste wood project promises greener CLT, in: RIBA Journal, Products in Practice, 16th September. Available from:听听(accessed 12 July 2024).

Featured in

World Green Building Council, 2023, The Circular Built Environment Playbook. Available from:听听(accessed 12 July 2024).
Cheshire, D., 2021, The Handbook to Building a Circular Economy, RIBA Publishing, 2nd edition.
Institution of Civil Engineers, 2020, Material gains, in UN75: Sustainable Engineering in Action, Artifice Press.

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