Course catalog

As an increasing number of homes are built in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), it is important to understand how residential construction performs when exposed to wildland fires. WUI zones are the areas where wildland – forests, chaparral, grassland, etc., meet or mix with human development. ...

This course introduces participants to the newly established 2025 California Wildland-Urban Interface (CWUI) Code, now Part 7 of Title 24. Designed to improve clarity and consistency, the CWUI Code consolidates wildland-urban interface requirements from three separate California codes into a ...

In this lecture, Jones provides insight into an ecological journey of a decade-long search for sustainable design strategies. The course focuses on how mass timber can be used as a lower-carbon approach to building design while also maintaining the safety and well-being of the occupants. The ...

This course provides architects and engineers with a practical overview of fire design considerations for mass timber connections in buildings of all types and sizes. Participants will examine common connection types—concealed steel hardware, panel joints, timber-to-timber interfaces, and exposed...

This course highlights seismic design considerations for mid-rise light-frame wood buildings over concrete podiums, a common structural configuration in urban residential development. Through an abbreviated design example, participants will explore the application of the two-stage seismic ...

ISO 13391 is a recently published standard that specifies how to calculate the greenhouse gas (GHG) dynamics for a set of wood and wood-based products. It includes four components: value chain emissions, harvested wood product carbon, forest carbon balance, and potentially displaced ...

The Aspen Art Museum, designed by architect Shigeru Ban, includes a long-span three-dimensional wood space-frame roof. Ban’s charge was to create a wood space frame with spans of more than 50 feet and cantilevers of 14 feet, in a structural depth of 3 feet. The space frame was to have two planes ...

When striving for material efficiency, the design of mass timber floor and roof systems to resist horizontal wind and seismic loading through diaphragm action is an important consideration. The design of diaphragms with mass timber panels typically follows one of two load path strategies.  For ...

Balcony design in mixed-use and multi-family projects can be a challenge. Cantilevered balconies may be the most vulnerable element of the building in that they are exposed to weather and have limited structural redundancy. Not only do they require careful design and detailing to ensure safety ...