IAAC & Bauhaus Earth’s Mass is More brings innovative mass timber design to Mies’ Barcelona Pavilion
From October 1-9 of 2022, the iconic Mies van der Rohe Barcelona Pavilion was transformed by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and Bauhaus Earth with mass timber installations establishing a dialogue between 20th century industrial modernity and the new, circular, low-emissions buildings of the 21st century. The event marked the launch of Mass Madera, a national network of pioneers promoting sustainable construction leveraging mass timber to decarbonise the built environment.
National
Spain
Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona (AMB)
Ajuntament de Barcelona (Barcelona)
Diputació Barcelona
Generalitat de Catalunya
Ayuntamiento de Lugo (Lugo)
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
Name of the organisation(s): Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia Type of organisation: University or another research institution First name of representative: Michael Last name of representative: Salka Gender: Male Nationality: United States Function: Technical Director of Valldaura Labs and Co-director of the Master in Advanced Ecological Buildings & Biocities Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Carrer de Pujades, 102 Town: Barcelona Postal code: 08005 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+44 7736 086183 E-mail:michael.salka@iaac.net Website:https://iaac.net/
Nearly 100 years after the Barcelona Pavilion was completed by Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich to become an icon of 20th century modernism, the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) and Bauhaus Earth (BDE) collaborated to catalyse a dialogue between the mineral-based past and bio-based future of our buildings and cities with a mass timber installation marking the launch of Mass Madera, a national network of pioneers promoting transformation of the industrial ecosystem of construction by leveraging circularly-designed mass timber to decarbonise the built environment. Adhering to the aesthetic language of the classic pavilion which serves as the venue for presenting the biennial EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture, Mass is More juxtaposes the most advanced materials of the 20th century with those of the 21st century, namely cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels made of wood from local forests exemplifying the emergent proximity economy of nature-based solutions and products. The installation demonstrates the unprecedented structural capacities of this new material system and its suitability for constructing carbon-negative, recyclable, ecologically-sound buildings as evidenced by an interactive digital application developed by the leading data-visualisation firm Bestiario comparing the environmental impacts of the original 1929 pavilion with the 2022 mass timber adaptations. Open from October 1st-9th of 2022, the installation hosted invited stakeholders from IAAC, BDE, the European Forest Institute (EFI), the Mass Madera network and the funding-organisation Built by Nature (BbN) at an opening ceremony within the programme of events coordinated by IAAC affiliated with Barcelona’s designation as the European Forest City of 2022 featuring cultural dance and video exhibitions. Subsequently, the installation was opened for visits by the public. A documentary film produced about the installation will expand awareness to anyone unable to visit in-person.
Mass timber
Circular bioeconomy
Carbon sequestration
Sustainable forest management
Biocities
Putting into real-world practice the insights of the ground-breaking Nature Sustainability article ‘Buildings as a Global Carbon Sink’ co-authored by members of the Mass is More design team, the Mass is More installation promotes through direct demonstration a paradigm shift in the construction sector towards a circular bioeconomy with an emphasis on proximate, bio-based, carbon-sequestering materials. The quantification of embodied carbon from source to completed structure of the installation’s engineered timber components is displayed both with physical indicators incorporated into the elements and via a digital application developed by the cutting-edge data-visualisation firm Bestiario. Beyond the substantial sequestration resulting fundamentally from the use of mass timber as the primary construction material, the embodied carbon of the installation is reduced further due to the innovative selection of spruce wood from Galicia to be processed into CLT panels by Xilonor, a leading Spanish company within the FINSA group. The use of domestic timber for CLT production represents a major milestone for the mass timber building industry of Spain, which has to date relied heavily upon imported resources. Moreover, the proof of viability of using an unconventional species in engineered timber products implies crucial ramifications for the underpinning sustainable forest management regimes providing the raw lumber by enabling the plantation of particular locally-resilient species promoting biodiversity and robust ecosystem services. Additionally, the Mass is More installation is designed in full acknowledgement of its temporality, with connections and modules optimised for disassembly and future reuse. In fact, after its inauguration in Barcelona, Mass is More will be rebuilt in Madrid before returning to the city of Lugo, near where the original lumber was harvested, to continue its life as the core fixture in an urban orchard park.
The Barcelona Pavilion is a staple of German, European and world architectural and industrial heritage, reflected by its selection as the venue for presenting the biennial EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award. The Mass is More installation respects and progresses this heritage by adhering to the modernist visual language of the 1929 structure whilst showcasing the newfound beauty and tectonics of mass timber, alongside the ecosystemic processes of its creation. Whereas the original pavilion deprioritises the garden to the rear of its site, Mass is More inverts the entry procession to begin, as does its substance, from the trees. An elevated walkway then leads to a massive slab of CLT cantilevered overhead to illustrate the exciting opportunities afforded by its exceptional lightness, offering an entirely new perspective of the pavilion below. The edges of this slab are left exposed to honestly display the perpendicular layering of lamellae which, through the natural molecular power of wood grain, lends CLT its remarkable strength-to-weight ratio greater than steel. Another CLT panel floats in the pavilion’s reflecting pond, emulating the 19th-century transport of harvested roundwood directly from the forest to the factory via rivers. During the opening ceremony, this panel served as a stage for a flamenco dance performance, experientially connecting the installation to a canonical symbol of Spanish culture and history. Yet inside, Mass is More looks to the future. The pavilion’s luxurious onyx wall is reinterpreted as a CLT panel innovatively composed of multiple species textured in low-relief using computer numerical control (CNC) milling to create a three-dimensional topography revealing the marbled richness of the various wood layers. The accompanying exhibition models the entire regenerative life-cycle with dioramas of each stage from where the trees were harvested through the extraction, processing, assembly and replanting processes.
The mass timber building and production systems promoted by the Mass is More installation are exemplary in the context of inclusive buildings as demonstrated in Barcelona by avant-garde social housing structures such as La Borda by Lacol Architects or the Cirerers Cohabitation Cooperative by Celobert. Apart from wood’s evidenced benefits on occupants’ health and wellbeing, the lightness, flexibility and non-toxic nature of the materials empowers flexible adaptation enabling bottom-up design methods and community engagement. Besides promoting mass timber as the sustainably regenerative substrate for a new era of affordable, collective architecture, the Mass is More installation also inclusively addresses all stakeholders throughout the engineered timber value chain. Considering the comprehensive life-cycle of mass timber buildings from the forest through the factory to the building site compels the increased valuation of ecosystem services. Consequently, such revaluation compels rebalancing of investment along the urban-rural nexus through rural and periurban job creation associated with the management, operation and expansion efforts necessary to optimise the ecosystem services rural and periurban spaces provide to supply urban growth and operation. Of course, improving the resilience and ecosystemic functions of rural and periurban environments also mitigates risks to local rural and periurban populations vulnerable to climate change, while decarbonisation of the built environment at the global scale mitigates risks to worldly populations vulnerable to climate change resulting from atmospheric warming. In more immediate terms, a documentary film produced about the Mass is More installation and design and construction process will allow persons unable to physically visit the pavilion during the installation period to appreciate and learn from the initiative.
Public citizens of Barcelona were invited to visit the Mass is More installation during its period of implementation in October of 2022 and benefited from the aesthetic and experiential value the installation offered as well as the knowledge rendered accessible to non-specialists regarding mass timber design and the potential of a widespread shift to a circular, bio-based construction industry embodied by and placed on display within the installation. Similarly, public citizens of Madrid will be invited to visit the installation during its second period of implementation in the Spanish capital and reap the same benefits. Subsequently, public citizens of Lugo will be able to use and benefit from the installation when it is finally incorporated into an urban orchard park serving the city. For members of the broader public unable to visit the installation physically in any of its three anticipated locations, a documentary film will communicate the primary contents.
At the local level, the Ajuntament de Barcelona (i.e. Barcelona City Council) supported the implementation of the Mass is More installation at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion and approved access by the public. The local municipalities of Madrid and Lugo have likewise supported hosting the installation within their jurisdictions. At the regional level, the greater Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona (AMB), Diputació de Barcelona (i.e. Barcelona Provincial Council) and Generalitat de Catalunya (Government of Catalonia) partnered in managing and hosting the events affiliated with Barcelona’s designation as the European Forest City of 2022 within the programme of which the Mass is More installation was exhibited. The complementary local and regional research and innovation organisations the Centre de Ciència i Tecnologia Forestal de Catalunya (CTFC), Centro de Investigación Ecológica y Aplicaciones Forestales (CREAF) and Parc de Belloch also partnered in facilitating these events. At the national level, Mass is More served as the launch platform for the Mass Madera network, a consortium of pioneering stakeholders from across the mass timber value chain committed to advancing Spain’s mass timber building industry comprising 23 initial member organisations, notably the Forest Stewardship Council of Spain (FSC España), the Asociación Española para la Sostenibilidad Forestal (i.e. Spanish Association for Sustainable Forestry / AESF) amongst others. At the European level, the designation of Barcelona as European Forest City of 2022 was granted by the transnational European Forest Institute (EFI) whose members representing thought- and practice-leaders from around the world attended the Mass is More opening ceremony. EFI also incorporated its annual conference within the European Forest City of 2022 events hosted in Barcelona. Lastly, it merits mention that the design of the Mass is More installation is itself an example of successful international collaboration between affiliates
The Mass is More installation combines the core disciplines of forestry, engineering, industrial production, carbon accounting and architectural and experiential design. The design effort was led by the architects, educators and researchers Daniel Ibañez and Vicente Guallart of IAAC with Alan Organschi of BDE, who coordinated with Xilonor to direct the production of the installation’s CLT panels from Galician spruce wood, and with Bestiario to develop the interactive application communicating the embodied carbon content. The design team also directed the contents of the exhibition displaying the entire mass timber value chain substantiating the installation and the programmatic events of the opening ceremony including a dance performance and video installation. Additionally, the design team coordinated with the city, metropolitan and provincial authorities of Barcelona, the government of Catalonia, the municipal authorities of Madrid and Lugo and the EFI leadership to manage hosting of the installation and integration amongst the events associated with Barcelona’s recognition as the European Forest City of 2022.
The primary outcome of the Mass is More installation, apart from broadly raising the awareness of stakeholders and the general public regarding ecologic, economic, aesthetic and cultural potentials of circular mass timber design, is the launch of the Mass Madera network. Funded by a grant from Built by Nature (BbN) and comprising 23 initial member organisations, this community of stakeholders spanning the value chain is dedicated to collaboratively advancing Spain’s mass timber building industry. Flagship members include the Forest Stewardship Council of Spain (FSC España) and the Asociación Española para la Sostenibilidad Forestal (i.e. Spanish Association for Sustainable Forestry / AESF), amongst others. Awareness will be further promoted by the documentary film produced explaining the installation. The urban orchard park in Lugo, near where the constituent timber was sourced, which will be fitted out with the Mass is More CLT components after the deployment in Madrid represents another lasting outcome of the installation.
Mass is More is exceptionally innovative compared to the state-of-the-art of the construction sector at large due to its exemplary use and communication of mass timber as a regenerative, nature-based, carbon-sequestering, beautiful and flexible material with a remarkable strength-to-weight ratio and profound capabilities for circular design. Further, Mass is More remains exceptionally innovative compared to the mainstream of mass timber design and production, itself a progressive field. Particularly, the use of an unconventional species of wood from Galicia (spruce) in the CLT produced by Xilonor for the installation enabled Mass is More to demonstrate the potential for nationally and regionally contained mass timber supply chains in support of a resilient proximity economy in Spain, which has historically relied upon imported timber. Additionally, Mass is More surpasses standard practise in the mass timber field by virtue of the design for disassembly strategies enabling the installation to be demounted from its original site at the Barcelona Pavilion, transported and reconstructed first in Madrid then again in Lugo. The multi-species composition and advanced digital tooling of the showcase CLT interpretation of the onyx wall represents another technical innovation. The thorough quantification and communication of the embodied life-cycle carbon of the installation in terms easily comprehensible by a non-specialist audience with physical markers and an interactive digital application by the data-visualisation firm Bestiario is also a noteworthy development. Relatedly, encompassing the entire value chain of the associated mass timber production within the scope of the installation as expressed by the exhibition of models diagramming each phase from tree harvesting through processing and eventually replanting reflects an innovatively holistic approach to the design process.
Mass is More is based on complementary top-down and bottom-up approaches to realising a widespread transition from a globalised, fossil-fuel, mineral-based construction sector to a proximal, circular, bio-based construction sector. The top-down methodology begins with inclusion within the Mass Madera network and the consortium of organisations supporting the Mass is More installation those interested governmental bodies, such as the local, municipal, provincial and regional administrations of Barcelona and Catalonia, who support expansion of the proximal mass timber building industry with progressive policies aimed at sustainability, health and wellbeing. These policies and associated investments then create opportunities for innovation and further investment by non-governmental stakeholders. On the other hand, diverse stakeholder groups from throughout the mass timber industry value chain are also included within the Mass Madera network in order to facilitate the nation-wide cross-pollination of ideas between forest managers, sawmills, engineered timber manufacturers, building designers, contractors and property agents towards collective, bottom-up expansion. Finally, by communicating to the general public the ecologic, economic, aesthetic and cultural values of circular mass timber design, Mass is More generates a bottom-up demand for expansion from citizens, thereby putting in motion an all-inclusive virtuous cycle of demand, opportunity, investment and innovation.
The methodology described above of combining top-down and bottom-up approaches through network building and aesthetic, experiential public events promoting proximal, circular mass timber design can easily be replicated or transferred to other locations by engaging the respective administrations, stakeholders and publics of that context. The technologies and processes spearheaded by the Mass is More initiative for incorporating locally-appropriate and resilient wood species within engineered timber products and communicating life-cycle carbon data in an intuitive manner are also equally valid for adaptation and replication elsewhere. Analysts project demand for a doubling of built floor area worldwide by 2060, with over one-third of urban growth by 2050 occurring in just three countries - India, China and Nigeria - none of which yet have mature mass timber building industries. Even Europe’s degree of urbanisation is expected to increase from 72% to 87.3% by 2050. Therefore, expanding the proximal, circular mass timber building industry is a key priority for sustainable development across the globe.
Mass is More addresses the global challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, environmental degradation and urbanisation with the local solution of proximal, circular mass timber design. Whilst substantial carbon-sequestration mitigating atmospheric warming is a feature of all mass timber buildings, the added emphasis on proximal and alternative wood species disincentivises monoculture and accommodates forest biodiversity. Moreover, the focus on lifecycle thinking, starting with the locally-specific adaptation of forestry regimes supplying locally-resilient species for mass timber buildings, ensures that healthy forests continue to provide ecosystem services and sequester carbon, resulting in truly carbon-negative urbanisation. By eliminating waste, the incorporation of circular design for disassembly and reuse further mitigates natural resource depletion and environmental degradation due to extractive operations.
