Wood Innovation Design Centre / Michael Green Architecture. Image
Concrete, an essential building material, has for decades offered us the possibility of shaping our cities quickly and effectively, allowing them to rapidly expand into urban peripheries and reach heights previously unimagined by mankind. Today, new timber technologies are beginning to deliver similar opportunities – and even superior ones – through materials like Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT).
To better understand the properties and benefits of CLT, we talked with Jorge Calderón, Industrial Designer and CRULAMM Manager. He discusses some of the promising opportunities that CLT could provide architecture in the future.
The need to substantially reduce our impact on the planet must be translated into a significant change to our lifestyle and habits. One of these is to consume responsibly and consider that waste does not exist, but that all material can be transformed into something useful again following a circular ecological system.
In his book Upcycling Wood, Reutilización creativa de la madera, the architect and artist Bruno Sève writes and edits a non-exhaustive guide of the uses and possibilities of recovered wood, as a framework for responsible reuse; from small scale, such as furniture or artists' canvases, to medium scale, with its use in interiors and facades. This book seeks to raise awareness among professionals and citizens in general through analysis of the life cycle, examples of uses and finishing processes, leading to an ecological and responsible framework. The book is illustrated by numerous design and architecture teams who follow the guidelines of ecological design with reclaimed wood.
The Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) is welcoming applications for the international summer school — 2019 EKA Summer Academy of Art, Design and Architecture – Possible Futures! Application deadline: 26 May.
Canada Earth Tower. Image Courtesy of Perkins + Will / Delta Land Development
Perkins + Will have revealed a new design for the world’s tallest wooden skyscraper in Vancouver. Called Canada Earth Tower, the mass timber project is designed along the city’s Central Broadway corridor. Bruce Langereis, president of Delta Land Development, unveiled the company’s proposal to transform a 1.3-acre lot at 1745 West 8th Avenue with a project that could rise up to 40 floors. Canada Earth Tower aims to become a new precedent and benchmark for green building construction.
New technology in digital building, particularly Computer Numerical Control (CNC) systems, are changing the way that we design and build wooden structures. Their high level of precision allows us to design perfect assembles--without screws or visible metalwork--resulting in structures that are durable, easy-to-build, and extremely well-organized. We spoke with the experts at Timber to better understand the process of building a wooden structure and to compile a list of key tips in designing one.
77 Wade Avenue. Image Courtesy of Klokwerk Digital Inc.
Bogdan Newman Caranci have designed a new mass timber office building in Toronto that will become one of Canada's tallest. Dubbed 77 Wade Avenue, the project is being developed by Next Property Group and will include 150,000 square feet across 8 floors. Following 3XN's T3 Bayside project that will rise to 42 meters in height, BNC's office will be among the tallest modern mass timber office and commercial buildings in the country. The design celebrates the use of mass-timber construction within the ever-evolving architecture of Canada.
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.jpg?1554305368 "El Galeno Horse Stables and Warehouse / Peñafiel & Valdivieso Arquitectos. Image © Francisco Croxatto Viviani")
