Located in the bustling Griffintown neighborhood of Montreal, Canada, the mass timber Arbora mid-rise project is the largest complex of its kind in the world built with a wood-based structure. This innovative mid-rise development's time-lapse video of Arbora's frame and floor construction demonstrates how mass timber contributes to the speed of construction and design for MURB buildings (multi-unit residential building)

The glulam beams and CLT wood panels for the Arbora mid-rise were constructed quickly with only 7 on-site workers, giving a nearly 600,000 sq. ft. surface area that was finished to create a community of 273 condominiums, 30 townhouses and 130 rental units for a total of over 430 residential units.

Over 1700 tons of carbon was sequestered in the timber construction, leading to a significant reduction in the embodied carbon of this mid-rise development. The building featured in the time-lapse video of the construction of Arbora also comprised retail space on the ground floor of this first of three buildings.

Building mid-rise projects from wood v concrete - case study

Ecohome's sister organisation Ecohabitation recently compiled an extensive 128-page comparative analysis report of wood v concrete for building mid-rise in Canada and North America and which calculated the embodied carbon reductions and cost implications in association with:

  • Groupe de Neuve Ltd - mass-timber mid-rise construction experts and developers of the Arbora project.
  • Cecobois - center of expertise on commercial wood construction, glulam and CLT.

The extensive mid-rise construction report can be downloaded in english here.    

Download the free mid rise report and infographic

Ecohabitation, the reference in sustainable housing in Quebec - their mission

Ecohabitation is a not-for-profit organization based in Quebec, Canada, that facilitates the emergence of healthy, resource and energy-efficient, sustainable, affordable housing. It achieves its mission through promotion, awareness, training and coaching activities with the general public, housing sector stakeholders and political decision makers.

The Ecohome Network covers english-speaking Canada, North America, and english-speaking countries with the same ideals, and is helping Ecohabitation with the diffusion of this initiative and in-depth comparative study between concrete and timber frame mid-rise buildings, including an infographic.

Solid wood, CLT and lightweight wood frames are surely the future of low-embodied carbon construction and bio-economic development in Canada, especially for mid-rise buildings:

Find more about green home construction in the Ecohome Green Building Guide pages and learn more about the benefits of a free Ecohome Network Membership here.