Efficient design of an office building as Steel/Timber hybrid – A case study

With Climate change and environmental degradation, the climate emergency is just round the corner, to tackle this issue the European Union aims towards no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. This would require designers to rethink the way buildings/structures are designed and most importantly with which material they must be designed.

The way forward is to have a sustainable design, with as little environmental impact as possible, but unfortunately the best materials in terms of environmental impact are not the cheapest. Hence, in this paper we would discuss how the two materials Steel and Timber maybe combined to form a hybrid structure – an Office building, taking advantage of steel's greater spanning strength and ductility and at the same time have a balanced carbon implication.

The study will also show, some of lessons learnt while comparing the two solutions, a complete timber design and a steel‐timber hybrid solution. Finally, a brief LCA analysis of solutions along with a steel‐concrete composite alternative will also be presented.