Mass Timber Demonstrator Buildings
PROJECT. COLLABORATION. INNOVATION.
Seed Funding 2023
Summary
D/RES Properties are developing and building a 1,000 m² Community Centre and Creche using mass timber and an off-site Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) construction methodology. They proposes to use the Community Centre and Creche as a baseline CLT building which can demonstrate the use of typical CLT floor cassettes, walls and roofs, as well as standard mass timber structural connection details, membranes and tapes that can be utilised across other building typologies.
The project aims to define the key aspects for the design, detailing, off-site DfMA process, optimised delivery and efficient erection which can provide the highest value for knowledge sharing to accelerate the use of mass timber in Ireland. The Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) of the project will be a key part in the sustainability credentials of the final mass timber development, following cradle to grave principles for which very limited data is currently available not only in Ireland but internationally.
“This mass timber building project is a key demonstrator for timber construction in Ireland. Key lessons have been learned in design and construction which will unlock opportunities for the wider construction industry. Furthermore, leveraging existing research expertise at the University of Galway, the project has illustrated that the mass timber solution is a low carbon approach that reduces the carbon footprint of the built environment. D/RES Properties have shown ambition and innovation in delivering these sustainable buildings and have pioneered a pathway to greater use of natural materials such as timber in construction.”
Dr. Patrick McGetrick, University of Galway
“The collaboration with Dr. Patrick McGetrick and his master’s students Donal Enright and Philip Connolly over the last 15 months has been an incredibly rewarding endeavour for both me personally, as well as D/RES as a company. The €50,000 seed funding awarded by Construct Innovate has enabled D/RES to undertake a deep dive into the innovative construction methodologies unique to mass engineered timber (MET) as well as delve into the highly technical whole life embodied carbon assessments (WLCA) which formed part of the seed funding objectives. The reciprocal give and take of knowledge and learning has been invaluable to all concerned, and the resulting academic documents will hopefully provide impetus to the industry at large to embrace the use of MET.”
Brett Chrystal, Head of Sustainable Design, D/RES Properties
Principal Investigator
Dr Patrick McGetrick,
Associate Professor in Structural Engineering at University of Galway; Principal Investigator in the Timber Engineering Research Group (TERG)
Patrick is a structural engineer with 17 years’ experience across structural design, analysis and dynamics. He is currently an Associate Professor in Civil Engineering and Director of the Timber Engineering Research Group at University of Galway, carrying out research and teaching in timber engineering and sustainable infrastructure systems.
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