Perceived barriers to the widespread adoption of Mass Timber Construction: An Australian construction industry case study
Abstract
Mass Timber Construction (MTC) has significant potential to improve the way the world constructs. However, despite a number of significant projects in Australia, and reported success in Europe and North America, Australia’s construction industry has been slow to adopt the system as a mainstream technology. The current study seeks to better understand the nature of the perceived hurdles to greater MTC use. A series of in-depth interviews explored perceived barriers to MTC adoption and strategies for overcoming them. Barriers can be categorised into two domains, ‘material’ and ‘method’. Material based barriers include, the way timber structures are designed and delivered compared with more traditional forms of construction. Knowledge seems incomplete, or incorrect, concerning the technology’s durability in terms of fire, rot and structural integrity. Method based barriers include a lack of open source financial and commercial information for risk management purposes. The study concludes with nine practical recommendations.
The Author (on behalf of any and all co-authors) hereby assigns to MTCJ (hereafter known as the Publisher) the copyright to the Contribution named above; whereby the Publisher shall have the exclusive international rights to publish in any and all media the said Contribution and translations of it wholly or in part throughout the World under the provisions of this agreement. These rights include without limitation mechanical, electronic and visual reproduction; electronic storage and retrieval; and all other forms of electronic publication or any other types of publication including all subsidiary rights.
