Grant: Alliance Grants

The multi-disciplinary team will have joined research forces at UBC, provided by 3 Professors and 1 Senior Research Associate, 3 Ph.D. students and 3 Master students specializing in different research fields and aspects. In Canada and many of its export markets around the world, wood is a common building material in low-rise residential construction. The overarching goal of the proposed research program is to develop modular timber structures that will further advance the use of both traditional and emerging engineered wood products in building construction beyond the building height and size limits of low-rise buildings. The outcome of this project will have a significant impact on the Canadian constructions' quality and performance toward a more hazard-resilient timber construction environment. The economic aspect of the project is mainly due to the modular construction and the implementation of automation in the process. Hence, it will speed up the manufacturing and construction process, while improving the overall performance and resilience of timber modular buildings. The resilience of structures and infrastructure is becoming an important issue for developed countries, accepting the fact that they cannot prevent future hazards, but rather they have to manage and minimize their impacts on humans and assets. This project will lead to more resilient timber constructions in Canada. A partnership among the Dept. of Wood Science, Dept. of Civil Engineering at UBC, and FPInnovations will be established, forming a high calibre and unique research team. The proposed research program links the structural and modular connection design, analysis, and testing with automated construction using robotics, allowing consideration of uncertainties from all aspects of a construction project from design to construction.