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Warp-10: Biotech’s First Mass-Timber Biomedical Plant Goes Where Few Have Gone Before
Inspired by Star Trek’s Warp 10—the theoretical speed limit of the universe—United Therapeutics gave its latest North Carolina construction project the same name, signaling the company’s commitment to pushing boundaries with sustainable construction. The Warp-10 project may not bend space and time, but it is intended to accomplish something unprecedented for the life sciences sector: a Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) pharmaceutical manufacturing plant built largely in mass timber and designed to drive toward zero carbon. The project demonstrates that wood systems can help realize project goals—even for risk-averse industries constructing technically demanding facilities.
Mission-Driven Low-Carbon Design:United Therapeutics’ Turnto Mass TimberMarks an Industry Milestone
For United Therapeutics, sustainability is inseparable from its patient-centered mission; the multibillion-dollar biotechnology company with roughly 1,400 employees is focused on developing therapies for rare and life-threatening diseases. “As a public benefit corporation, we balance the interests of patients, employees, and the environment alongside the financial interests of our shareholders,” says Andrew Campbell, the company’s Associate Director of Corporate Real Estate. That ethos drove the company to pursue mass timber for Warp-10, its new cGMP manufacturing facility currently being constructed in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. “The choice to go with mass timber for both the core structure and the envelope of the building was central to making big cuts in our footprint and targeting zero embodied carbon,” Campbell says. “We didn’t want just a pretty mass timber lobby—we wanted as much of the building as possible in wood to truly move the carbon needle. It reflects our broad ambition to operate sustainably.”
Constructing this type of building with mass timber marks a milestone for the industry. Typically built with steel and concrete, a cGMP-compliant facility—cGMP stands for Current Good Manufacturing Practices—must meet FDA standards that ensure pharmaceutical products are consistently produced and controlled to strict quality requirements. These regulations cover everything from facility design and cleanliness to equipment, training, documentation, and process validation.
From Biotech to Biophilia:Mass Timber Creates aWorkplace of Choice
The Warp-10 facility uses a hybrid mass timber structural system to meet those guidelines. Glulam columns and beams form the primary frame, chosen for their strength and ability to handle the long spans required in a manufacturing environment. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is used for roof and floor decking, as well as wall panels that form the building envelope. Even the curtain wall system that overlays the panels incorporates timber elements, complemented by Shou Sugi Ban siding and bands of Cor-ten steel at the base.
Campbell notes that mass timber offers multiple advantages for a project like Warp-10. Prefabricated components meant the structure could go up much faster than conventional steel and concrete, while sustainably sourced wood helped reduce embodied carbon by locking in the carbon absorbed during growth. He also notes that mass timber delivers comparable strength to concrete at a fraction of the weight, achieves fire resistance through predictable charring, and supports biophilic design strategies that bring natural warmth into the workplace.
Prefabrication played a crucial role: Nordic Structures CNC-cut openings for services and connections before delivery, allowing the structure to assemble “like a building block set,” as Campbell describes it—enabling faster erection and tighter coordination of connections. The Type V-B construction classification permitted the use of combustible materials in a large-floorplate facility, with fire resistance achieved through member sizing and charring allowances.
For occupants, the experience of the building is shaped by exposed wood and deliberate connections to the surrounding North Carolina landscape. Staff will enter the facility via an elevated “Tree Walk” platform that leads into a two-story lobby defined by mass timber staircases, branding elements, and structural members left proudly visible. “Even the UT logo and branding are all constructed out of wood elements, really leaning into wood as a primary material of construction,” says Jennifer Wampler, principal at EwingCole and project architect. Beyond the lobby, a two-level office delivers a mix of workstations and private offices lined with mass timber and softened with acoustic baffles.
Circulation corridors double as 40-foot-high viewing galleries, allowing visitors and employees to look into the cleanroom suite while still experiencing the warmth of natural light and the mass timber structure. This juxtaposition—precisely controlled clean-room environments set against open, timber-framed offices and circulation spaces—turns the building into a kind of living demonstration of how organic structural wood can be integrated into complex cGMP manufacturing facilities with stringent performance requirements. When complete, the facility will manufacture and package dry powder drug products for inhalation, as well as assemble and package delivery devices used with those therapies. It’s designed to support up to around 50,000 patients annually once operational.
Visitors and employees can see the facility at work while also experiencing the spatial warmth, daylight, and material honesty of wood and its biophilic benefits. “The views from within the manufacturing space are unique,” Wampler says. “Vertical fenestration breaks up the horizontal massing, but more importantly, it connects occupants to the surrounding forested campus—making those outlooks both distinctive and special.”
