As Southern California continues to grapple with increasingly destructive wildfires, architects, builders, and futurists are turning to an unexpected material to fortify homes against future firestorms: timber. Not just any timber — mass timber — which is gaining traction as a fire-resilient alternative to steel-and-concrete construction. And whilst concrete and steel have long been considered the gold standard for fire resistance, an increasing number of people are embracing timber’s durability and sustainability.
Daniel López-Pérez, a professor of architecture at the University of San Diego and founder of the home-building startup Polyhaus, believes mass timber is the future of fire-safe housing. In February, he assembled a 540-square-foot prototype ADU in his La Jolla backyard using 60 mass timber panels — each made of three 1.5-inch layers of plywood sealed together.
“With traditional wood construction, the wood, studs and insulation leave plenty of room for oxygen, which fuels fires,” López-Pérez told the LA Times yesterday. “With mass timber, the three layers are sealed with no air gaps, making them much more fire-resistant.” When exposed to fire, mass timber chars slowly — about half an inch per hour — meaning a 4.5-inch panel could withstand flames for six to seven hours. “It’s like in forest fires, where big, old-growth trees survive by charcoaling. The exterior chars, but the inside survives,” he said.
Polyhaus has seen a surge in interest since the January fires that devastated Altadena and Pacific Palisades. López-Pérez says he can deliver a fully assembled unit in six weeks, with costs starting at $300,000. “By 2050, we’ll be mixing ancestral materials with high-tech solutions,” he added. “Think Star Wars: a lightsavber in a cave.”
Mass timber isn’t just a backyard experiment. Lever Architecture, which has offices in Portland and Los Angeles, has pioneered its use in commercial projects, including buildings for Adidas and the Oregon Conservation Center. Whilst in LA, mass timber is being used in developments from Silver Lake to Marina del Rey.
Meanwhile, Ken Calligar, CEO of resilient building company RSG 3-D, sees mass timber as part of a broader shift toward non-combustible materials. His company produces insulated concrete panels with fire-retardant foam, but also acknowledges timber’s growing role. “In California, 98% of homes have wood frames. All those homeowners have a future tragedy on their hands,” Calligar told the Times. “You can’t knock down all of California and start new, but you can mitigate portfolio damages by making new parts of the portfolio better.” He added, “By 2050, Californians should have a fire-proof place to store their assets in case of a fire. That way, you at least have something to get back to.”
Architect Michael Kovac, a Palisades resident, built his celebrity-client home with fire resistance in mind — and it paid off. On Jan. 7, his street burned, but his house survived. “We built it to be able to withstand a small fire,” Kovac said. “We never imagined our whole community would be erased.” His home features fire-resistant fibre cement-panel siding, a green roof with fire-resistant soil, and triple-pane windows to block radiant heat. Before fleeing, Kovac secured valuables in a concrete-wrapped room with a fire door rated for three hours and activated perimeter sprinklers to spray fire retardant. While some upgrades were costly, others were DIY — like mesh screens on vents to block embers. “Every improvement helps,” he said. “But the harsh reality is that older structures that don’t comply with modern fire codes will burn.” Kovac sees the destruction as a chance to rebuild smarter. “Now there’s a clean slate, so the neighbourhood we build next will be more fire-resilient.”
Builders are responding to demand.
KB Home recently unveiled a 64-home fire-resilient community in Escondido, featuring non-combustible siding and defensible space. Santa Monica-based firm SweisKloss offers fire-rated glazes and foam-retardant sprayers in its custom designs. Still, cost remains a barrier. Concrete homes typically cost 20–50% more than wood, and fire-resistant upgrades can add tens of thousands to a build. But mass timber offers a middle ground — combining resilience, sustainability, and affordability. As López-Pérez suggests, retrofitting existing homes with mass timber panels could buy firefighters precious hours during a blaze. “Instead of tearing down the 1950s tinderbox houses,” he said, “we should tack mass timber panels onto their exterior or interior.”
- To learn more about the rise of mass timber as a cost-effective alternative to steel-and-concrete in LA, click here for Wood Central’s special feature on the rise of the “Super Bungalow.” And to find out more about how a fully passive house clad with timber survived LA’s worst fires in history, click here for Wood Central’s story from January.
