Selection of structural system for wooden public building: Multiple criteria approach

Abstract

There has been a growing interest in the construction industry for using materials with lower environmental impacts, in this context, stakeholders increasingly seeing wood as the natural and sustainable option for public buildings. Studies worldwide have already investigated modern structural systems for wooden construction. However, the selection of alternative structural systems is rarely discussed, alternatives are seldom compared. To close a gap this paper proposes a framework for selection of the structural system for a wooden public building based on a Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) multiple criteria assessment method. The proposed methodology is applied for the case of a public wooden building – shopping centre in Lithuania. Three structural systems (1) double tapered glued laminated beams and columns, (2) laminated veneer lumber (LVL) trusses and columns and (3) single tapered glued laminated beam and I type steel column are compared. The research allowed distinguishing the most efficient structural system according to eight conflicting quantitative and qualitative criteria, which, in this case, contains double tapered glued laminated beams and columns. Proposed assessment framework is relatively simple to apply, therefore can be successfully used in practice.