Wood Scores A+ for Schools & Student Housing

Natural building material takes top honors for cost, aesthetics, and performance
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Sponsored by reThink Wood and WoodWorks

A Smart Environmental Choice

As a material that grows naturally and is renewable, wood's environmental advantages are increasingly being recognized by government and business. In 2011, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture's strategy to promote the use of wood as a green building material. “Wood has a vital role to play,” he said, noting that U.S. Forest Service studies show that wood compares favorably to competing materials. This is particularly relevant to the education sector, which, according to a 2013 study by McGraw Hill, poses the largest opportunity, by dollar value, for green building. The report states that, “Between 2008 and 2011, the green share of education construction grew dramatically, rising from 15 percent to 45 percent as a percentage of construction starts by value.” It also notes that all new construction is expected to be green by 2025.

“Sustainability was extremely important to LPA and the Lake Tahoe Unified School District,” says Rogers. “The fact that wood is a renewable material with proven durability reinforced our choice to use it as the primary structural system for the high school.”

Robert Sotolongo, AIA, LEED AP of DTW Architects & Planners, Ltd. in Durham, North Carolina, agrees, adding that sustainability was a consideration in designing the K-8 Duke School in North Carolina. “Southern Yellow Pine was the primary wood used in the structure and decking. The wood is an abundant natural resource in the southeast, making it a sustainable, renewable, and regional choice,” says Sotolongo, “It was very important for the Duke School community to incorporate sustainable design features in their new campus and wood was a key element of the sustainable design.”

Wood played a key role in the Blackfeet Community College Math/Science Building, the first tribal building in the U.S. and the first educational building in Montana to be awarded LEED Platinum.

Wood played a key role in the Blackfeet Community College Math/Science Building, the first tribal building in the U.S. and the first educational building in Montana to be awarded LEED Platinum.

Photo courtesy of Tony Bynum

Energy Efficiency
Wood-frame buildings can be easily designed to meet or exceed even the most demanding energy-efficiency requirements and, depending on the structure, may result in operational savings for the school district over time. For example, because steel is less resistant to heat flow than wood, steel studs create a bridge for heat transfer through the building envelope. As a result, steel-frame buildings require more insulation to achieve the same thermal performance that wood buildings provide, and even then may cost more to heat and cool. If metal is not thermally isolated, the resulting thermal bridges can also become prime locations for moisture condensation. “The wood studs just do not transfer heat and cold the way metal studs do and consequently help the energy efficiency of the exterior envelope,” says Sotolongo.

Calculating a Building’s Carbon Storage

An online tool is available to designers who want to estimate the carbon benefits of their wood buildings. The carbon calculator uses volume information to estimate the amount of carbon stored in the wood products, greenhouse gases avoided by not using steel or concrete, and amount of time it takes North American forests to grow that volume of wood.2

Source: woodworks.org

 

According to a study by Keith Kothmann, CPE, Steel v. Wood, a Cost Analysis of Superstructures, exterior wall systems also offer thermal benefits when using wood studs instead of metal. Depending on wall height, a metal drywall system can accelerate thermal conductance for 12 to 15 percent of the wall surface, regardless of the amount or thickness of insulation in the wall. “The wood industry is continually investing in research and development to increase energy efficiency,” says Lockyear. “Some of the initiatives include building systems that offer greater air tightness, less conductivity, and more thermal mass where appropriate—including prefabricated systems that can contribute to the low energy requirements of Passive House and Net-Zero design.”

 

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Originally published in Architectural Record
Originally published in January 2014

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