Early-Stage Codesign of A Material Passport For Volumetric Timber Building Components

Typically, the architecture and construction sector struggles to adopt digital innovations. Slow, fragmented, and carbon-intensive, the sector often frames digital innovation as efficiency pathways, disregarding broader socio-cultural or environmental factors that enable digital transitions. In that context, this paper reports the development of a material passport (MP) for volumetric timber components for the British market. To facilitate adoption, we present a codesign methodology that ensures industry input from early stages of development and testing. Fieldwork activity included architectural design professionals, timber supply chain stakeholders, manufacturers, and digital developers. Data have been codified into emergent themes influencing the development of MPs. Early-stage analysis indicates a sectorial complexity in design aspects such as trust and data logging, creation, maintenance, or ownership of MPs. Last, we introduce upcoming development stages comprising testing and further refinement of the MP prototype in the context of two building lifecycles in the United Kingdom.