This article is adapted from an original feature by Journal of Commerce
Underground parking garages are always assumed to be made of concrete, but Massive Canada’s designers challenge that concept. A concrete podium requires temporary supports, building forms, reinforcing steel and a lot of time to pour the cement and allow the slab to cure.
There’s also the heavy carbon footprint from cement and steel.
Massive Canada Building Systems Inc., a Port Moody, B.C.-based mass timber and modular building manufacturer, is hoping to change that. The company secured a contract to design and build a single-level underground parkade of mass timber on a 1.3-acre property on North Road in Gibsons.
It will be the first-ever underground mass timber parkade in Canada.
The idea of a mass timber parkade is to reduce the amount of concrete and the heavy carbon footprint of cement and steel. All interior posts and beams will be mass timber. The top of the parkade will be covered with cross-laminated timber panels. A roofing surface will make the entire podium waterproof.
