ABSTRACT
Against the modern historical background described, most timber light-frame building superstructures constructed dur ing the 20th and early 21st century have had limited sizes and acco mmodated restricted occupancy uses; and had traditi onal architectural and structu ral features. In
G. Doudak Department of Civil Engineering, University of Ottawa, Canada
I. Smith Advanced Construction Technologies III, Fredericton, Canada
ABSTRACT: Possibilities for transforming contemporary prescriptive and semi-engineered design practices for tim ber light-frame building supers tructures into fully-engineered design practices are discussed. Im petus for such change are increasing dem and for construction of larger and taller buildings of the light-frame type; taking advantage of r elaxation of f ire performance related restrictions on heights and overall sizes of buildings constructed using com bustible materials; concerns that existi ng design pra ctices are not robust in ability to differentiate between efficient and inefficient design solutions; and av ailability of new technical inform ation and design tools. As the title indicates the key to fully-engineered light-frame building superstructures is ability to predict how forces associated with various design loading scenarios flow through them from points of applic ation to foundations. This narrative is based on recen t research studies in Canada by the authors and their collaborators.
