To reduce the environmental impact of new construction, property owners, architects and commercial builders are looking back in time, using materials and techniques that were more common in the Colonial era.
Green building, in other words, doesn’t have to involve modern technology.
It can revolve around the reuse of salvaged wood that was hundreds of years old when it was cut for 19th-century mills. Or it can use centuries-old methods of carpentry, which create buildings that last for generations.
A new process and product called cross-laminated timber also is becoming more common. It involves newer-growth wood sections, placed in layers and glued together into a single mass that is as strong as steel.
This replaces or supplements structural steel, greatly reducing the carbon impact of new construction by eliminating the reliance on mining and steel manufacturing processes. It was recently employed at the Rhode Island School of Design, where North Hall, a new, six-story residence hall, uses a combination of structural steel and cross-laminated timber.
The use of timber is estimated to reduce by 20% the carbon emissions produced from the manufacturing of the building components when compared with steel construction, according to RISD.
Clients are demanding more green construction materials and methods, fueling interest in sustainable materials and construction techniques.
In East Providence, Stephen Lane has established Ark Woods and Services Co. LLC, a business that focuses on reclaimed wood. Not just any wood, but southern longleaf yellow pine.
He specializes in repurposing the original-growth hardwood that was felled in the 1800s to build factories and mills across the U.S. and Europe. It’s strong enough to be used in new construction of buildings, as a structural element, and because it’s original-growth, its grain is so tightly bound that it makes a beautiful statement, Lane said.
His company, about a year old, has provided the material across the country to builders. In downtown Providence, the recently finished Nightingale Apartments has employed a single beam to wrap an entrance wall in its lobby.
“It’s a stunning statement” Lane said. “The reclaimed symbolism is very important and it’s beautiful.”
The environmental impact of using the reclaimed longleaf yellow pine is just as important, he said. Because the wood has already been milled, it will not require further processing.
“If you milled a brand-new two-by-four, there’s about 10 times as much carbon emitted … than using a two-by-four that was cut down 150 years ago,” Lane said. “There’s a tenfold benefit.”
Most of his wood stock comes from a massive Pawtucket mill that was dismantled several years ago. The wood was used not only in the flooring but in the posts and beams that held up the brick exterior.
This material can now be used, in the 21st century, to frame out new buildings, Lane said. Or it can be cut and placed over newer-growth wood, in an engineered product that cuts the cost of the wood in half. Because the old-growth wood is covering the newer-growth, however, the appearance is the same.
“It’s an affordable version,” Lane said. “The beam looks beautiful and old-growth, but it’s more affordable.”
Creating new buildings made with traditional techniques, and which last for generations, is a specialty of South County Post & Beam Inc. of South Kingstown.
Josh Bouvier, the second-generation owner, said his father started the business in 1978, pulling apart original Colonial homes and then putting them back together. The company uses the technique of post-and-beam construction, what Bouvier described as the original “green” construction before it had such a name.
Post-and-beam building predates steel and concrete construction and involves the use of mortise and tenon joints. By its nature, it reduces environmental impact.
“It’s not a building that’s good for 30, 40 years. It’s good for hundreds of years,” Bouvier said. The life span of a building or an addition should be included when people calculate an environmental footprint, he said.
“There’s the short-term benefits of where you’re sourcing your materials, the carbon footprint, all of the conversation points that are popular today,” he said. “But the other part of it is when you build a building, how long is that building going to serve generations of people, and then, over time, how small of a footprint does that have on the world so it’s a long-term, green structure?”
His clients run the gamut from people building custom homes to commercial owners who want new buildings, such as a working barn, or statement features, such as a cathedral ceiling made of exposed timber.
South County Post & Beam is also fielding more requests for using cross-laminated timber as a material.
Next year, Bouvier’s company will build a four-story building in Brockton, Mass., using cross-laminated timber.
The cross lamination creates an aesthetically beautiful finish, so it can be used as a statement. Or it can be used as a structural element, to reduce the environmental impact.
“When you take that pile of timber, and you compare it to a steel-and-concrete building – not only the carbon sequestration and the nature of wood but the global footprint of what it takes to build in concrete and steel – it really is the new green building,” Bouvier said.
Mary MacDonald is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Macdonald@PBN.com.
