Timber as a Construction Material in the Implementation of Ecologically Sustainable Urban Infrastructural Projects

The importance of wood as a sustainable construction material cannot be understated, especially in an increasingly resource constrained world. Lately, there has been growing interest by the scientific community in timber construction as a viable alternative to conventional materials. A growing body of international researchers show that wood as a construction material out performs conventional construction materials in terms of sustainability and with appropriate processing the same holds true for the physical performance of wood. The integration of modular wood construction in complex building systems is explored in this thesis, so as to derive unique typologies for high-density contexts and to subsequently form of a symbiotic urban ecosystem. To this end, the metabolic processes between these modules or constructed infrastructure are assessed. Assessment of the performance of wood as a construction material is conducted by empirical comparison of the physical performance of wood with that of conventional construction materials, constituting the quantitative analysis of the thesis. Furthermore, this thesis analyses the extent to which the construction industry stands to gain from the implementation of wood construction as a substitute for conventional construction materials. The aggregated data on from comparison of case studies confirms the hypothesis that wood could serve as a viable alternative to conventional construction materials, but only to the extent that local administrative instruments and policies as well as factors of economic feasibility can allow.