STRUCTURAL OPTIMISATION OF TIMBER OFFSITE MODERN METHODS OF CONSTRUCTION

摘要

Efficient and sustainable building systems are required in order to achieve the British government's target of building three million new homes by 2020. Given the current lack of activity in the housing construction market to achieve this goal, increased levels of offsite modern methods of construction (MMC) need to be adopted which conform to future regulatory and code requirements, are environmentally sound and structurally robust. The Centre for Offsite Construction and Innovative Structures (COCIS) at Edinburgh Napier University, in collaboration with its industrial and professional partners, has carried out a research project which revolved around the optimisation of a low-carbon affordable home which includes a thermal envelope with reduced cold bridging and a three-dimensional module containing two bathrooms and the main building services. The project is known as Future Affordable and this paper focuses on the service module which is entirely manufactured in the factory, then transported to site and connected to the other building components. The wall and floor panels of this volumetric unit consist of solid timber planks joined together with steel nails. This research originates and develops from other projects which are currently being conducted at the Centre, to investigate timber construction from different, but complementary, perspectives including United Kingdom (UK) Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) funded work into the Structural Optimisation of Timber Offsite MMC.