199 - Commercial Timber Guidebook with Danny Hopkin and Luis Gonzalez Avila

Fire Science Show

We know a whole lot more about mass timber in fire than we did a few years ago (even when I’ve just started the podcast 199 episodes back …). But is this knowledge widely used in engineering practice? Is it used in the same way by different stakeholders? Definitely not.

This is why to move timber into something we would consider “new normal”, we need more than research. We need a consensus on how to apply the outcomes of our research in practice. And this is this podcast episode.

Built by Nature, with a group of investors, property owners, and managers, funded a grant led by Elliot Wood to write a “consensus” guideline on using mass timber in office buildings. A large part of the book covers fire, which we also cover in this podcast episode.

I’ve invited prof Danny Hopkin and Luis Gonzalez Avila from OFR to walk me through the story of the guidebook, its contents of it and we also jump deep into the design philosophy of the book.

https://builtbn.org/knowledge/resources/commercial-timber-guidebook/

In this podcast episode, we try to stay away from explaining how timber burns (sorry!). But if you want to know more about physics, the Fire Science Show has you covered. Check out the timber section of the podcast! Look here: https://www.firescienceshow.com/categories/timber/

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The Fire Science Show is produced by the Fire Science Media in collaboration with OFR Consultants. Thank you to the podcast sponsor for their continuous support towards our mission.

Chapters

1. Introducing Mass Timber's Evolution (00:00:00)

2. The Commercial Timber Guidebook Origins (00:03:36)

3. Addressing Industry Pain Points (00:08:18)

4. Office Buildings and Height Categories (00:13:15)

5. Compliance Pathways for Timber Buildings (00:21:55)

6. Fire Safety Principles Framework (00:33:23)

7. Case Studies Demonstrating Principles (00:42:51)

8. Designing with Confidence and Consensus (00:58:02)