What we delivered

  • Assessed the feasibility of using timber in housing construction across East Africa while identifying opportunities for its adoption 

  • Developed a new policy and regulatory framework key to unlocking the decarbonisation potential of timber construction in East Africa

Services used
Materials / Planning, policy and advice

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The construction sector faces a surge in Africa due to population growth and rapid urbanisation. However, much of the housing for this future urban population has yet to be built. To meet this demand, sustainable solutions are required within Africa's construction sector and supply chain to mitigate its growing carbon footprint.   

Gatsby Africa appointed Arup to complete an opportunity assessment for timber in housing construction in East Africa. Focusing on typical urban residential building typologies, this assessment looked at the potential for substituting high embodied carbon materials, such as concrete and steel, with timber. The timber construction materials that we examined included mass engineered timber, wood products and low-tech engineered timber.  

The use of timber in urban housing is currently limited due to barriers such as lack of awareness, limited availability, affordability issues, and an absence of quality standards, regulations and skills. In our study, we address these challenges and explore opportunities to promote the use of sustainably sourced timber in mainstream housing construction.

Assessing timber construction in East Africa 

For each selected housing typology, the study developed and compared concept designs that used conventional materials – such as steel, reinforced concrete, and masonry blockwork – against those that utilised timber-concrete hybrid systems and mass engineered timber. Across the East African supply chain, we analysed construction costs, embodied carbon savings, forestry resource needs and overall adoption feasibility.  

From this assessment, we concluded that timber is a viable and sustainable alternative to conventional building materials in East Africa. However, for timber to be fully adopted, we found that the region’s construction industry would need to establish a range of new policy and regulatory frameworks.  

Some of the policy and regulatory improvements that we identified include: standardising timber grading across the region, updating building codes, developing a sustainable timber supply chain, and building increased capacity within the industry. If these can be achieved, the wide-scale use of timber has the potential to decarbonise housing developments across East Africa. 

A person working on a wooden table.

The analysis of mid-rise residential buildings shows high potential for emissions reduction at scale. Switching to timber materials could reduce embodied carbon emissions by up to 47% in mid-rise buildings when compared to traditional building materials.

Industry engagement  

Beyond reviewing which policies and regulations hinder the greater use of timber, we also engaged with the construction industry to understand its perspective on the barriers. During the industry engagement session, we discovered that, apart from the lack of unified standardisation and regulation, the most common barriers preventing greater use of timber in housing construction include cost and availability; lack of pilot projects to demonstrate applicability of timber solutions; low capacity among the built environment professionals to work with timber; and cultural and contextual relevance with many viewing timber as a construction material for those economically disadvantaged.  

These barriers will need to be overcome as timber is being increasingly promoted to decarbonise construction. The analysis of mid-rise residential buildings shows high potential for emissions reduction at scale. The study indicates that switching to timber materials could save up to 23% and 47% of embodied carbon emissions associated with this building typology under business-as-usual and future-state scenarios respectively, compared to traditional building materials.