Wood has seen a resurgence recently as a construction material driven by technological advances and a growing concern for the environment. Although an increasing amount of mass timber high-rises are being built all around the world, lack of information and outdated preconceptions are some of the obstacles that are keeping mass timber products from increasing their market share in high-rise construction. Academia and industry leaders must keep track of the progress that is being made and inform the general public as innovation and technological advances continue to take place. In this context, the University of British Columbia has recently completed the construction of the Brock Commons Tallwood House. This 18-story residence building employs two reinforced concrete cores and a mass timber structure composed of cross laminated timber panels, glued-laminated columns, and parallel strand lumber columns. With this, the building is currently the tallest wood building in the world and a testament to the suitability of engineered wood elements for high-rise construction. Aiming to address the lack of information surrounding mass timber high rise construction, this thesis documents the quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) practices that were put in place during the delivery of the building. The main objective of this research was to identify and present lessons learned from the application of these QA/QC practices. To do this, various QA/QC practices were identified and analyzed by reviewing the project specifications and other project documents, reviewing recognized industry standards, and interviewing various members of the project team. This study found a series of comprehensive and well-planned QA/QC practices that were put in place by the project team and that were appropriate to comply with the project requirements. This study concluded that most of these practices are replicable and advisable for future projects. The different QA/QC practices that were identified and the lessons learned from their application are presented in this thesis.
The study laid out in this report aims to build on the lessons learned from around the globe and in BC to promote and facilitate the deployment of BIM and DfMA in the context of mass timber construction. The study’s objectives were to:
1. Explore BIM tools and software platforms that support collaboration and optimization of design solutions as well as enable seamless exchange of information in the context of DfMA of mass-timber solutions.
2. Investigate the potential impact of the use of BIM tools and software platforms on project and team outcomes in the context of mass-timber construction.
3. Investigate how the modeling process can be streamlined to minimize waste and optimize the DfMA process in the context of mass-timber construction.
4. Investigate the readiness of manufacturers and installer/assemblers to supply BIM data for products and systems.
5. Propose recommendations to position the supply chain to design, manufacture and assemble mass-timber structures.
6. Propose recommendations that identify future training requirements for BIM enabled DfMA in the context of mass-timber construction.
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