According to the government, the Swedish economy is in a strained situation. High inflation and rising interest rates are leading to reduced purchasing power for households, putting many companies in a difficult position with a higher number of layoffs and bankruptcies as a result. Regarding timber prices, they increased heavily in 2021 due to sanctions against Russia after their invasion of Ukraine. The eliminated import of Russian timber, alongside problems with bark beetles in Canada and Central Europe, led to a drastic increase of timber prices. The prices of timber products increased by 61.4 percent during the period January 2021 to January 2022, and by 13.5 percent for concrete products. Due to these circumstances, there is an interest in keeping down construction-related costs, where one approach is to choose building materials with low costs and high strength. This case study examined the differences between an existing school building made of CLT and a corresponding building made of RC, in terms of material prices and the structure of the load-bearing elements. 

Based on drawings of an existing school building, a model was created in Strusoft FEM-Design. A corresponding building made of RC was then modeled based on a realistic execution in terms of dimensions and placement of load-bearing elements. Both buildings were then analyzed and designed until the utilization rate, deflection and stability reached acceptable levels. The total material cost was then calculated for each building, and structural properties were compared. 

The results of the study showed that the building made of CLT required larger dimensions for the load-bearing elements but weighed approximately 50 percent less than the RC building. However, the overall utilization rate was lower for the loadbearing elements in the building made of CLT. Material costs were approximately eight percent higher for the building made of CLT than the RC building. 

The conclusion of the study indicates it would have been more expensive to build the school building from CLT than RC in terms of material prices, but more indepth studies investigating all related construction costs should be conducted. Both the CLT frame and the RC frame had load-bearing elements with a maximum utilization rate of 99 percent. However, the CLT frame generally had a lower utilization rate than the RC frame. In addition to the RC frame being cheaper, acceptable strength could be achieved with smaller dimensions of the load-bearing elements and sparser placement. This creates larger space for the activities the building is intended for. Overall, the study suggests it would have been beneficial if the school building had been built of RC instead of CLT from an economic and structural perspective.