2024 Timber Framers Guild Conference

Tim Krahn

Building Alternatives, Inc., Partner

Tim Krahn is a registered professional engineer and partner in Building Alternatives, Inc. (BAI). He holds a Masters degree in geotechnical engineering and a Bachelors degree in civil engineering from the University of Manitoba. He has a pre-university background in residential and commercial construction and holds a certificate in carpentry and woodworking from Red River College. Tim is also a LEED-accredited professional, an active member of the Timber Framers Guild's Timber Frame Engineering Council, and a founding member of the Canadian Alliance for Natural Buildings Engineering. He currently sits on the National Building Code of Canada's Standing Committee for Housing and Small Buildings and the Canadian Standards Association's A257 Committee, which is responsible for the CSA O86 standard - Engineering Design in Wood. Tim is the author of "Essential Rammed Earth Construction - The Complete Step-by-Step Guide."

BAI specializes in engineering design using low-embodied energy, low-carbon emission materials such as wood, earth, stone, straw, clay, hemp, and lime. This engineering design includes the techniques with which these materials are combined and assembled, and incorporates responsible and appropriate current technologies such as air barrier membranes and geosynthetics that allow new applications of the older, time-tested materials. Tim's research interests include earthen construction, timber & cellulose building, design for resilience and de-constructability, energy and material efficiency, and sustainability in the built environment. BAI is active in applied research, working together with academic institutions on projects to improve our quantitative knowledge of pre-industrial building materials and their behavior in the Canadian climate, collaborating with researchers at Queen’s University, University of New Brunswick, and others. Tim regularly presents work at sustainable building conferences in North America and abroad.

buildalt.ca

Presentation

If You Can't Grow It, You Gotta Mine It: Bio-Based Insulation Materials
Timber Framers are used to working with natural materials to create structures. Sustainable construction using natural materials can be viewed with any number of lenses. For instance, Heritage in the built environment, Health (low- or non-toxic building materials), Community (owner-built, workshop style builds that aim to educate and connect like-minded people), or Resilience (buildings that are as autonomous as possible – water, power, passive heating & cooling, etc.). The lens I’m using in this presentation is predominantly one that focuses on sustainable insulation materials with an emphasis on embodied carbon. A long-term goal of my engineering practice is to promote circular economies and sustainable communities – as opposed to linear economies and extractive/exploitative societies.