Building resilience is one of those concepts you read about and think, ‘Of course.’ It’s an obvious next step in the evolution of sustainable design, conceived to meet a critical need, just as green building itself can trace its beginning to the oil crisis of the 1970s and the need to reduce energy consumption.

fire station

Photo: Josh Partee Photography

Today’s need is to anticipate and prepare for adverse situations—such as earthquakes and hurricanes, the effects of climate change, even deliberate attacks—because there is nothing sustainable about having to rebuild structures before the end of their anticipated service lives and all of the resources that entails.

Learning Objectives – After this course, you should be able to:

  1. Discuss why the concept of resilience can be viewed as another step in the evolution of sustainable building design.
  2. Identify the strengths of traditional wood framing and mass timber systems in the context of building resilience, including performance during and after earthquakes, hurricanes, and other disasters, as well as the relevance of carbon footprint and embodied energy.
  3. Explain how the International Building Code (IBC) and referenced standards such as the National Design Specification® (NDS®) for Wood Construction support building resilience.
  4. Describe examples of research related to the development of new building materials and systems that could help communities meet more stringent resilience criteria.

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