Mass Timber Market Updates - Sep 2024 - Week Thirtynine

Uncover the secrets of how mass timber is revolutionizing construction worldwide, with insights from stunning projects in Finland, Canada, and the UK! We'll take you inside the Finnish forestry giant Store Enso's headquarters, a marvel of sustainable architecture that blends seamlessly with its historic environment. Then, journey to Vancouver to explore a pioneering school crafted entirely from prefabricated mass timber components. Designed by HCMA Architecture and Design, this state-of-the-art facility sets a new standard for educational spaces, offering students an immersive environment bathed in natural light and breathtaking views.

Our global tour continues with exciting updates on major developments in the UK and Canada. Discover the ambitious vision for Brent Cross Town, featuring expansive office spaces, student housing, and indoor sports amenities, all coming to life in a vibrant new community. Celebrate with us as Surrey marks a milestone with its first mass timber housing development, enabled by updated provincial building codes. Plus, get all the details on the UK's future educational gem, St John Academy, set to become the region's first all-through school. Join us as we explore how mass timber is not just changing skylines, but also transforming how we live and learn.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:59

Ladies and gentlemen, we are live. This is the moment you all have been waiting for. It's time for the global sensation, the one, the only, the undisputed heavyweight podcast in the world the Mass Timber Construction Podcast. And now here's Mark Kramer, your host. Good morning, good afternoon or good evening, wherever you are in the world today, welcome to the Massive Construction Podcast. Thank you, bruce Buffer, for an amazing introduction, as always. My name's Paul Kramer, your host.

Speaker 1: 1:57

Don't forget, raffo's School is happening again this year in December 2nd and 3rd in Italy, right before that big conference that happens in the middle of Europe. If you'd like to get along, please head to our LinkedIn feed or Rotho Blast website to get your ticket to Rotho School. Don't forget Rotho Blast. Rotho School is also coming to Melbourne, in Sydney, in Australia, very soon, in November. Catch up on LinkedIn for all the details and don't forget to hit subscribe, like, comment or share any of our content and submit a manuscript to our academic journal.

Speaker 1: 2:33

Let's have a look at what's making news around the world this week in mass timber construction land, and the first is the headquarters of Finnish forestry group Store Enso. There is these beautiful pictures coming through from their headquarters. The goal was to create a calm presence of the historic milieu, about the same time of providing an interesting new environment for city dwellers, located where the headquarters is positioned. It is using sustainable architecture and sustainable timber is positioned. It is using sustainable architecture and sustainable timber and if you'd like to go and have a look at the amazing imagery from this atrium forum area, please head to our LinkedIn feed. The news has come in from Vancouver, where the Vancouver school board's latest addition to the classrooms in Vancouver is the first completed school built entirely using prefabricated mass timber components, predominantly CLT. The school is part of Vancouver's school board pilot project that seeks to assess the possibilities of using mass timber for the future, and it was designed by HCMA architecture and design for how children will learn in the present day. The school features tons of natural light, extensive use of wood and interior is a fundamental ground quality which is to be used for grounding students in the sense of keeping them centered, and is complementary to the views across the site and beyond the city and the coastal mountains. The $22.4 million Canadian dollar 3,436 square feet school is able to accommodate a total of 340 students and is predominantly located in a single-family residential neighborhood in the northwest of Vancouver. If you'd like to have a look at this impressive school, please head to our LinkedIn feed.

Speaker 1: 4:22

And we reported a few years ago on the Brent Cross Town and in its planning stages. Well, now there's more investment photos and real estate development paraphernalia coming out on the Brent Cross Town, which began in 2020. And now you can see some new concept drawings, which will introduce the indoor sports amenities and 3 million feet of office space. The plan is to include provisions for student housing, a renovation of three local schools and the development of a new school. So if you'd like to see some more, you can head to our LinkedIn feed. And we previously reported this on our linkedin feed a couple of months ago, but we're a little bit behind in the podcast. But the new site for the portland-based timberlink swinnerton conglomerate in millersburg for the new plant has been released and there's an image of that on our linkedin feed if you want to go and have a look.

Speaker 1: 5:18

And the big news coming out of Surrey is the topping off ceremony that was celebrated for the construction of Surrey's first mass timber housing development project on July 23rd. Yes, we reported it a while ago. There is some new images coming through now and you can see the Surrey City Centre, where the mass timber building is adorned in the cityscape. The BC government announced updates to the provincial building code which allowed for up to 18 stories, and this is one of the first projects to take advantage of that. So please do have a look at our LinkedIn feed.

Speaker 1: 5:54

And to the UK now. Emboygas UK has been named the official contractor for the new secondary school near Wantage in Oxfordshire. The St John Academy is a £28 million project for the Vale Academy Trust alongside the already completed primary school on the Grove on Wellington Gate development, and it will create a first all-through school nursery through to year 11 in the area, teaching around 600 pupils. There is an amazing two-story green roof, solar panel dawned, natural synthetic playing surfaces, sustainable drainage systems, all surrounding a mass timber constructed building. If you'd like to have a look at more of that, you can have a look at our linkedin feed. And staying in the uk and Liverpool's Alder hey Children's Hospital, which was designed by Cullen Studios and is in the Manchester-based 10 Architecture Firm's portfolio of work, the Caitlin Centre and Sunflower House have different purposes, the former providing various outpatient services and the latter providing inpatient unit accommodation for children, about 12 of them age between 5 and 13 and it uses CLT panels inside the building using glue laminated timber. An impressive site. Please do check it out.

Speaker 1: 7:18

And that's it, folks. That's all we've got time for this week in Mass Timber Construction Land. Don't forget to hit subscribe so you never miss an episode, when we do publish them every week. Don't forget if you have a manuscript, submit it to an academic journal. Don't forget Ratho School in both Sydney and Melbourne in Australia and also in Italy at the international headquarters, you can go and see their amazing automatic warehouse made out of mass timber building construction and we look forward to bringing you the news next week. Good morning, good afternoon or good evening, wherever you are in the world today. This is Paul Kramer signing off on the Mass Timber Construction Podcast. Thank you,