The U.S. construction industry could unlock major gains in sustainability, speed and design innovation by more aggressively embracing mass-timber construction—if policymakers and developers remove existing barriers, argues Andrew Mack of HFA Architecture + Engineering.
“In Sweden and Austria, timber towers rise with a warmth and craft that feel alive, not just sustainable,” Mack writes in an online column for Construction Business Owner (CBO). “Cross-laminated timber (CLT) factories hum, making it possible to build entire floors in days, not weeks. Yet in the U.S., mass timber often feels like a regulatory slog—adopted to meet carbon goals, not to spark excitement.”
Mack, who conducted a grant-funded research tour across Europe, interviewed firms behind some of the world’s tallest timber structures. He currently teaches a mass-timber-focused course at the Illinois Institute of Technology, helping prepare the next generation of architects for what he believes could be a defining material shift.
According to Mack, Europe is years ahead of the United States—but that gap is surmountable.
“Europe has shown what's possible—curved geometries, hybrid systems, buildings that breathe,” he writes. “We can do more than just chase Europe's lead on mass timber; we can take it.”
Mack highlights that many European projects blend timber with steel, glass and concrete, not only for aesthetics but to address practical concerns. “Designers in Europe have realized that hybrid buildings can be used to overcome some of the disadvantages of pure CLT skyscrapers—such as the tendency of wood, when lying flat in a floor-to-ceiling connection, to compress like a kitchen sponge,” he writes.
To counter structural movement in tall towers, heavier materials can be strategically placed near the top. As Mack explains, “wood can be so light as to lead to an uncomfortable degree of swaying on the upper floors.” He compares stabilizing methods to “an old-timey water tower in the Old West that is perched on three legs.”
Mack believes local sourcing could be transformative not just for sustainability but also for rural economies. He points to Austria’s KLH factory as a prime example of tight collaboration between producers, designers and government bodies.
“Local wood could make mass timber as practical as it is beautiful, supporting communities, alleviating the housing crisis, cutting carbon and turning overgrown and/or underused forests into the backbone of a new architectural era,” Mack writes.
Europe is leveraging automation and factory-built modular timber rooms. Mack cites Sara Kulturhus in Sweden, where “the Swedish company Derome prefabricated entire hotel rooms, made largely of wood, that were then transported to the jobsite and slotted into the building like shoeboxes onto a shelf.”
In the U.S., he notes that companies like Fabric Mass Timber (FMT) are pioneering new BIM tools to better connect fabricators and designers — paving the way for curved forms and intricate timber geometries, rather than just basic panels.
Mack closes with an invitation — and a challenge — for builders, lawmakers and educators to take mass timber seriously as both a sustainable solution and a design revolution.
Mass timber “is as old as building itself, yet its potential continues to unfold,” he writes. “The question is not whether we can build in timber, but how far we are willing to push it.”
Originally reported by HFA Architecture + Engineering in PR NEWS WIRE.