Wood took the stage in November at the 2025 Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA) in Cape Town, where industry experts addressed delegates in a timber-focused workshop on the theme Timber transformed: Building our future with nature’s most sustainable material.
The workshop unpacked timber’s potential, from its proven environmental and structural benefits to the practical realities of cost, certification, and design. The speakers used South African case studies to explain how architects and builders can reimagine present and future spaces with timber.
The speakers and their topics were:
- Ferdinand Hassan: Change starts with you: Timber and the carbon challenge
- Braam de Villiers: Navigating the 4th industrial revolution: How the revolution will impact the sustainability of the planet
- Jamie Smily: Design for disassembly: Circular buildings with CLT and Glulam
- Damien Mocke: Raise the roof: Timber floors for green CBD densification
- Carmia Paterson: Mass timber construction in South Africa: Cost and potential use
- Christo van der Hoven: Four years of MTT and thoughts for the future
- Gerard Busse: Understanding timber certification in the South African context: Is my timber genuinely sustainably sourced?
- Siviwe Mbinda: Uplifting communities through timber.
The workshop began with a presentation by Ferdinand Senam Hassan, a PhD Candidate and Assistant Lecturer at the University of Pretoria. He spoke about the timber and carbon challenge, arguing that, with global building sector emissions continuing to rise and progress on reducing operational emissions insufficient, the sector must make tangible efforts to reduce embodied carbon emissions.
Ferdinand emphasised that timber is not a niche alternative, but a critical component in rethinking how the building industry addresses carbon reduction. Timber, in various forms, was presented as a structural lever capable of transforming the industry’s ethos.
Digital design
The second presentation was delivered by Braam de Villiers, Director at Earthworld Architects. Braam examined how digitalisation is reshaping the construction industry and what this means for its future.
He noted how tools such as Building Information Modelling (BIM), parametric design, and CNC manufacturing are materially altering design and production workflows. These technologies have moved engineered timber from a craft-oriented material to one capable of industrial precision.
Digital modelling, automated fabrication, and integrated design-to-production pipelines now enable the conceptualising, prototyping, and manufacturing of complex timber structures with a level of accuracy that would have been impossible a decade ago. CNC fabrication reduces tolerances and complexity during manufacturing, enabling assembly by teams with varying skill levels. This shift has consequences beyond efficiency.
Braam emphasised that in the South African context, digital workflows can expand labour participation rather than displace it. Digital timber construction can localise value creation, linking design, fabrication, and assembly in ways that generate employment and skills development, rather than reproducing the job displacement narratives often associated with 4IR.
Circularity with timber
The third presenter, Jamie Smily, Managing Director at XLAM, discussed a recurring theme at the GBCSA Convention – circularity.
Jamie made a strong case that timber, particularly cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glued-laminated timber (glulam), enables the creation of building components that can be removed, reused, and reconfigured with significantly less degradation than conventional materials.
He highlighted emerging case studies where structural timber retains high value even after deconstruction. The underlying argument was that timber enables a shift from “end of life” to “next life”, moving the industry closer to circular construction principles.
Green CBD densification
Urban densification may require us to build up rather than out. According to Damien Mocke, Technical Specialist at Smec, this means we need lighter, faster, and cleaner construction systems.
Damien’s presentation confronted a central question for Cape Town’s future: will the city continue to thicken its skyline with concrete and steel, or adopt lighter, cleaner construction systems capable of supporting real urban sustainability?
He positioned engineered timber not as an aesthetic choice but as a strategic material shift. Mass timber systems, such as CLT, glulam, and hybrid composite panels, offer high structural performance, require a fraction of the energy needed to manufacture steel or concrete, and store carbon rather than emit it.
Damien argued that mass timber delivers three decisive advantages for CBD densification: mass, speed, and value. Timber buildings weigh 50-75% less than their concrete counterparts, making rooftop additions feasible on structures that would otherwise require extensive foundation strengthening.
Off-site prefabrication reduces construction time, noise, labour intensity, and disruption to surrounding businesses. These conditions are critical in dense CBD environments. Faster programmes and reduced substructure work translate to improved project economics and earlier returns.
To demonstrate the potential of these principles, Damien introduced a case study reimagining a 60m ageing building in central Cape Town. The structure is a candidate for timber-led vertical expansion, using parametric modelling to test multiple overbuild scenarios.
The concept proposes self-supporting prefabricated rooms on the building’s edges, four additional floors built from composite concrete–timber systems on an extended concrete core, and a striking curved glulam super-truss that anchors a rooftop amenity programme complete with restaurant, bar, and pool.
The proposal also includes a new timber-and-glass façade and planted balcony zones to reinforce the building’s biophilic character. While detailed fire, acoustic, heritage, and structural assessments remain part of the feasibility process, the presentation emphasised that technical pathways already exist, backed by global precedents and ongoing local research.
Read the full stroy here – https://www.woodbizafrica.co.za/november-december-2025-issue-54/6/