Multiply - Cross laminated Timber Project Case Study

Production of Tulipwood Cross laminated Timber panels

This award winning project was part of London Design Festival 2018 and challenged how we build our towns and cities.

Combining sustainable American tulipwood with innovative methods of modular construction, MultiPly confronted two of the current age’s biggest challenges – the pressing need for housing and the urgency to fight climate change.

A unique partnership of business, academia and applied research came together to manufacture the tulipwood cross laminated timber panels (CLT) for MultiPly. They all also agreed that the project held lessons for the future of wood-based building and specifically use of hardwood in engineered timber construction.

The innovation lies in the material used to manufacture CLT and the method of joining the CLT panels to allow them to be demountable.

Commercially American tulipwood is one of the most prolific hardwood species from the U.S. hardwood forests and is unique to North America. It has a high strength to weight ratio and so is ideal for use as a structural material. The CLT panels are connected using bolts rather than screws so can be demounted and re-assembled. The panels are the first ever hardwood CLT panels manufactured in the UK.

MultiPly was a collaboration between AHEC, Waugh Thistleton Architects, Arup, Construction Scotland Innovation Centre, Glenalmond Timber & Edinburgh Napier University’s Centre for Offsite Construction + Innovative Structures (COCIS).

Given the ever-increasing demand of solid laminate timber systems in the UK, MultiPly has allowed us to demonstrate the manufacturing process, structural characteristics, flexibility, environmental credentials, visual impact and consistency of solid timber laminate systems such as CLT, and the benefits of modular construction. Mark Milne
Technical Manager, BE-ST

Partners

AHEC
Waugh Thistleton Architects
Arup
BE-ST
Glenalmond Timber
Edinburgh Napier University’s Centre for Offsite Construction + Innovative Structures (COCIS)