Mass Timber Market Updates - May 2023 - Week Twentyone

Get ready to dive into the world of mass timber construction with your host, Paul Kremer! This week's episode is packed with exciting news and developments, including Immersa International's recent court approval to purchase Structural and Mass Timber Corporation assets for a whopping 81 million US dollars. You'll also learn about Ascent and Cerro Cultural House winning the prestigious 2023 CTBUH Structure Award and the Best Building under 100 meters, respectively. 

In addition to these achievements, we explore our own feature in the CTBUH quarterly journal, which investigates the feasibility of mass timber vertical extensions in urban landscapes. You'll also hear about global developer Hines' open day for the T3 project in Melbourne, Australia, and their plans to ramp up their built-to-rent exposure. Finally, we touch on the first wooden radio mast inaugurated in Bechelstein, Germany, which aims to set the precedent for a lower CO2 carbon footprint in mobile communication infrastructure. Don't miss out on this information-packed episode that'll keep you updated on all the latest happenings in the mass timber industry!


Production by Deeelicious Beats
Music "Game Play" by Quality Quest
Podcast is a Mass Timber Construction Journal Production
www.masstimberconstruction.com

Sponsors of the Podcast:

International Association for Mass Timber Construction (IAMTC)
The International Association for Mass Timber Construction aims to promote and deliver value to its members and associated stakeholders through an all-encompassing approach to advocacy, thought-leadership, development for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing sectors, provide education, training/teaching and research in establishing a global mass timber construction sector across the five contents of the world.

Transcript

Paul: 0:48

Good morning, good afternoon or good evening, wherever you're on the world today, welcome to the most of the construction podcast. My name's Paul Kremer, your host, and welcome to another week of all that is happening around the world in mass timber construction land. We've got a big week of news, but beforehand, please make sure you hit the subscribe button. Never miss an episode of this podcast. We are now also adding in track markers as well as transcriptions of all of the content that's coming onto the platform right now, so that you can take that information, transcribe it into whatever language you need and disseminate the information for the betterment and the good of spreading the good word around mass timber construction.

Paul: 1:29

Let's have a look at what's making news around the world this week in mass timber construction land, and the big news coming out of North America right now is that Immersa International has been able to receive approval from the court to purchase the assets for structural and mass timber corporation, including the facilities in Arkansas and British Columbia, for 81 million US dollars. The Conway plant has an annual capacity of 75,000 cubic metres and can produce both glulam and CLT, and the three facilities in BC provided combined annual capacity of 40,000 cubic metres of glulam and CLT. Immersa said the total acquisition would materially increase its gross cross-laminated timber capacity by 210,000 cubic metres of CLT and 45,000 cubic metres of glulam production. It is great to see that structural and will actually continue, but in a different way. Let's hope that many jobs can be saved in the process with the purchase from Mercer. Congratulations to Mercer for putting their foot in the water and taking a dive, and the CTBUH Council on Tall Building and Urban Habitat out of Chicago has released their annual 2023 winners for their building competition, and it is a congratulations to Ascent, which wins the 2023 Structure Award. It's pleased to share the award of excellence alongside all the other awardees, which will be internationally recognised at the conference in Singapore in October. So if you're not heading to the CTBUH conference, it's time to get your tickets booked and get your hotel accommodation. And also congratulations to Cerro Cultural House, which also won the Best Building under 100 metres and was awarded its Excellence Award and will be internationally recognised at the conference in Singapore alongside Ascent. So two great mass timber building constructed buildings entering in the 2023 CTBUH awards. Congratulations to all the other participants in all the other categories. It is a great achievement to see mass timber making such an impact in such recognised circles as the CTBUH International Awards.

Paul: 3:39

Also coming out of the CTBUH just recently is their quarterly journal articles, and I was very pleased to see my own article in there with a team of people from Deakin University, where I'm associated, and we explored a building above our city. So evaluating the feasibility of mass timber vertical extensions in a composite group So not just one vertical extension, but many And looking at sky bridges interconnecting between these two structures sitting above our urban landscapes. These may be one of the conceptualisations that may address urban densification problems around the globe. The article is not free. You will have to pay 10 US dollars to see it in a digital version. Unfortunately, i do not have copies to give away, but if you do go and have a look at it, it's a great project. We're hoping the larger project for which we receive seed funding from the CTBUH will also be published as a how to guide on how to analyse and understand how vertical extensions may go on top of existing buildings in densified cities, using sky bridges as a connection system between them to create communities above our cities. We'd like to thank the CTBUH and sponsors for their great contribution to our research and our seed funding And to my local hometown of Melbourne and the global developer.

Paul: 5:01

Hines had their recent open day for the T3 located in Wellington Street in Melbourne in Australia, and the project has now been recognised by a number of news articles. Architecture and designcomau have released a new article We'd like to go and read that. It makes a claim that utilising timber, it reduced the emissions, was able to reduce the emissions in 34% comparison to concrete and steel using the X-Land produced, and the Australian Sustainable Hub would produce materials for its construction project. And, adding to this, another recent article came out where Hines has been looking to ramp up its built to rent exposure in Australia, with the focus on securing opportunities in Sydney, brisbane, according to its Pacific Asia Pacific CEO, ray Lawler. So Hines is looking to now start to take a kickoff from the Melbourne office space market into the built to rent and looking at a tower, potentially in Collins Street in the CBD of Melbourne, and they might be looking for tenants to be locked in there before they actually start development. So it's great to see Hines investing in Australia.

Paul: 6:13

Thank you very much, ceo Ray Lawler and the team at Hines for all you do, and hopefully we'll have someone on the show at some point in the future to talk about what the next endeavors are. And finally, on the show today, the first wooden radio mast was inaugurated in Bechelstein in Germany. It was built as part of a pilot project and further locations are being planned, but the European radio mast was a vantage tower and it was implemented by the cooperation of the Finnish startup Ecointelligent, in combination with StoryEnzo product. It hopes to set the precedent for a lower CO2 carbon footprint for wooden poles, blended with better environmental approaches to increasing the acceptance of mobile communication infrastructure among the population in Europe. So let's hope that that trend kicks off. It actually is quite an iconic looking sculptural feat, and it not only looks aesthetically pleasing. I'm sure it functions very well for people using the mobile tower.

Paul: 7:11

If you'd like to see more, please head to the Mast Timber construction journal, linked in feed, and you'll be able to see the images there. Well, that's it, folks. That's all we've got time for today in Mast Timber construction land. Great to have you on board for another week. Lots happening around the world. Please do keep up to date with our social media feed. There is over 200 to 300 posts every month. Your contributions are making us the most engaged platform in the Mast Timber construction sector around the world. So thank you so much for all you do. If you have not subscribed to this podcast, please do subscribe now. Don't forget. We now have track markers and we have transcriptions for everything that's being put into the podcast from this point onwards. It's been some time in the making. I do apologise and it is a very good morning, good evening or good afternoon. Wherever you are in the world today. My name is Paul Kremer signing off on the Mast Timber construction podcast.