Mass timber’s economic promise collided with two challenges at the 2023 International Mass Timber Conference in Portland, Oregon: scalability as a family of products from managed forests and its capacity to solve the affordable housing crisis. I talked to lots of folks who define the leading edge of mass timber as a design strategy and delivery method, and the consensus was simple: the benefits of cross-laminated timber and glued-laminated timber have been proved after nearly 20 years and it’s a make-or-break moment for sustainable architecture.

➜ Tipping the Scales on Mass Timber published by Architect Magazine, 2023, at architectmagazine.com