The priority now is about getting the fabric of a building right; which is great news for timber frame. Forget about sourcing fancy renewable energy systems to bolt onto leaky, poorly built buildings with high embodied carbon – the emphasis should now be on putting the Fabric First.
A two year continuous assessment of timber frame homes built at the BRE Innovation Park has shown unequivocally that timber frames are ideally suited to the Code for Sustainable Homes (CfSH). It is no surprise that the first homes reaching Code levels 5 and 6 were timber frame buildings. Timber frame is a perfect fit with the low carbon agenda and more and more architects appreciate its benefits; finding it much easier to achieve very high insulation levels, fewer defects and increased air tightness, all with extremely low embodied energy.
Timber frame has the lowest embodied CO2 of any commercially available building material, while delivering up to a 33% reduction in energy consumption for large detached houses and up to 20% for apartments. By selecting timber frame, a faster construction time is guaranteed, whilst the costs of achieving higher code levels dramatically reduced. Think Fabric First.
Find out how using timber frame as the core fabric of a building can help you not only achieve higher levels of the Code for Sustainable Homes but a whole host of other benefits by click onto out Fabric First Microsite here.
