Mass Plywood Panel Energy + Seismic Prefabricated Panelized Retrofits
Funding provided by the U.S. Forest Service, 2020 Wood Innovations, Federal Grant number 2020-DG-11062765-737 and by an Economic Development Administration Build Back Better award as part of the Oregon Mass Timber Coalition.
University of Oregon and Oregon State University are collaborating through TallWood Design Institute (TDI) to upgrade aging, energy inefficient and seismically unprepared multifamily housing by developing a mass plywood (MPP) retrofit panel assembly that employs digital workflows and small diameter logs (down to 5”) to create an economically viable energy/seismic retrofit model for the West Coast and beyond. The project has broad potential to support forested federal land management agencies and private forestry by providing a new market for small diameter logs.
The desired outcome of this research is to produce an innovative retrofit solution for upgrading existing multifamily housing stock to meet climate change and community resilience goals. To achieve this outcome, the project team will create a full-scale demonstration prototype and associated cost model in order to share directly with industry (including panel manufacturers, contractors, architects, and developers) for adoption.
Read our two papers from the Proceedings of the 2023 World Conference on Timber Engineering here and here.
