The
Mass Timber
Data Center Playbook

You’re reading this, so you’ve likely already heard at least some of the hype about Mass Timber. In case you haven’t, here are a few quick highlights. 

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When switching from Steel/Concrete to Mass Timber: 

• Microsoft just announced they reduced the Embodied Carbon Footprint of their new data centers by 35% 

• Builders report construction schedule reductions by up to 25% 

• Scientists state it could save 14-31% of global CO2 emissions 

• Design teams report overall cost savings of over 5% 

• People even feel happier inside the finished buildings 

 

If it’s such a miracle material, why isn’t everyone building with it? 

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Here are some of the reasons we’ve heard over the years: 

• It’s too expensive. 

• It’s too complicated. 

• We’d have to start over from scratch on our design. 

• My design team hasn’t worked with timber before. 

• It can’t achieve our required spans/bay spacing/floor-to-floor height/etc. 

• Too big of a fire risk. 

• I heard it was a nightmare to coordinate it on-site. 

• Local Code officials aren’t comfortable with it. 

 

If prefabricated Mass Timber (MT) is anything, it’s a different way to envision the data center. 

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Apart from ample land and power, some critical constraints in building a data center are supply chain issues, skilled labor shortages, and any such factors that affect build time. Then there are the environmental impacts to consider, and many data center investors are committed to climate agreements with net zero carbon commitments. A prefabricated MT model, particularly a hybrid utilizing the advantages of long-span steel beams as well as lumber’s speed and reduced weight, allows you to address many issues, and deliver a better ROI without introducing excessive risk. 

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Simply put; while MT construction has advantages and may catalyze the broad adoption of off-site fabrication to reduce build times and enhance supply chain diversity, it is not without limitations or tradeoffs. There is power in leveraging a hybridized model for more than simply exchanging concrete (and steel) for timber, but the approach requires a skillful team engagement at inception (concept through commissioning). 

 

We wanted to respond to these issues - so we gathered a team of experts with backgrounds ranging from Mass Timber to Technical Trades (MEP), and from Design to Manufacturing to Construction. Each was asked for their opinions on Data Centers, Mass Timber, Off-Site Manufacturing, and the specific benefits and challenges listed above. This document attempts to synthesize their combined knowledge and experience; and distill it into a few short pages. As such, this document is not an engineering study or a conventional white paper. Rather, we consider it a “playbook” to help stakeholders quickly evaluate their options and open the forum for constructive dialogue & foster collaboration. Although this Playbook does not delineate a definitive strategy for the large-scale deployment of MT data centers, it aims to stimulate thoughtful discourse and informed dialogue by presenting the perspectives of experts on potential approaches to achieving this objective.

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We believe designing for MT should be about more than just swapping out a material in an existing design. Rather, placing it as the central element of a new holistic plan that optimizes every phase of the construction process, emphasizes off-site prefabrication, utilizes modularity in design, and includes multi-trade coordination. The end result marks the shift toward “Model to Machine” construction. A facility truly “Designed for Manufacturing and Assembly” (DfMA) construction, where precision manufacturing and sustainability converge to create a “Data Center 2.0”.