Architectural aspects of massive timber : structural form and systems

Sammanfattning: The hypothesis of this thesis is that there are rational, technical and architectural gains to be made from interactively developed architectural and structural utilisation of massive timber plates. The aim is to study and describe architectural features of structural applications of massive timber and ways to utilise and develop timber-based plates in building applications by combining an architectural and a structural engineering perspective. The work presented in this thesis concerns the fields of architecture and structural engineering, their interrelations and interaction in building systems based on cross-laminated timber products. Characteristic of the entire work is the search for advantages from material- and product-specific features and how to utilise these architecturally and structurally, unified in a holistic perspective. The work contains two case studies and a theoretical extension. The studies and discussions on development of the utilisation have lead in two directions: towards industrialised residential building construction and towards timber plate structures in combination with steel rods or cables for wide spans. For building systems production, erection methods and system-action are of main importance for the result and a case study comprising four Swedish and two Austrian projects on medium- and high-rise residential blocks has been performed. For advanced structures it is the material and product properties that are of main importance and a case study on timber-structures for wide spans has been performed. One Swedish project has been considered aligned with four Austrian examples. Two- and three-dimensional structures for wide spans of the type treated in the thesis are not yet in production. The results from the case studies and a discussion on form finding, the study of and search for the interplay between force and structural form, have been developed into a theoretical extension of advanced structures with timber-plates in combination with steel rods, cables and trestle structures. The theoretical extension has resulted in a new type of structural element based on timber plates.