Mass Timber Market Updates - Oct 2024 - Week Fourtyfour

Welcome to an exciting exploration of the latest developments in mass timber construction! Ever wondered how sustainable design is shaping the future of urban spaces? Tune in to learn about the University of Massachusetts Amherst's innovative public health building and marvel at Melbourne's 55 South Bank Boulevard project, a stunning example of mass timber's potential in urban landscapes. We'll also reveal findings from the Council on Tall Building and Urban Habitats, highlighting a global surge in mass timber buildings.

Join me, Paul Ramblin, as we celebrate the winners of the Australian Timber Design Awards, with a special spotlight on the impressive T3 Collingwood project. We also discuss a pivotal collaboration in Australia aimed at fostering sustainable change within the construction industry. Plus, discover how Langley Township in British Columbia is leading the charge for innovative fire hall projects using mass timber. Don't miss these stories and more, offering a glimpse into the dynamic world of mass timber construction and its potential to transform our built environment.

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 Paul Ramblin, your host, and welcome to another episode of Mass Timber News from around the world. Don't forget to hit subscribe so you never miss an episode, and make sure that you check out all our resources on our international social media, which is through LinkedIn or our international journal research publication, where we bring you news from around the world each week to make sure that you're the most informed. Don't forget our International Association for Mass Timber Construction School and Module 1 coming up very soon, under development right now in beta testing very, very soon, and we look forward to releasing more news on that as it comes to hand. Let's have a look at what's making news around the world this week.

Speaker 1: 2:41

In Masatimba Construction Land, the University of Massachusetts Amherst Hall, a public health and health services building is currently under construction. The 2,489 square meter project will include term-based learning classrooms, seminar rooms, collaborative spaces, advising offices and, at the centre of the school, a common wide space opening up into an exterior entry plaza. Currently, the learning spaces are dispersed on the campus. The school's new hub project is designed to create a unified gathering place. The mass timber structure and wood stair system will highlight the warmth and an inviting shared space, and a wildflower lined bio entry system which will be able to provide a series of weirs and spillways for daylight, stormwater runoff, minimizing ground pipes and systems, and to enter into the visitors pass. You go through a shaded plaza and the bird-friendly triple glazed glass used throughout the entire building will provide a deep vertical fin system providing sunlight and control glare to glaze common areas. The building's scheduled to be completed in 2026 and we've got a schematic and an illustration of the building. On our LinkedIn feed, and Build Australia is highlighting the 55 South Bank Boulevard project, which is a 10-story vertical extension or build-on building in the heart of Melbourne, my hometown, using mass timber construction and build Australia talks about the advantages of using mass timber and the fact that the CTBUH, the Council on Tall Building and Urban Habitats audit was undertaken in 2023 and counted 162 mass timber buildings around the world that were over eight stories, and has proposed that there is a lot more that are under construction. So if you want a general overview to catch up on mass timber around the world. Check out the article on Build Australia and the annual Australian Timber Design Award winners have been announced at the event in Sydney, in Walsh Bay. Professor Greg Nolan from the University of Tasmania was the emcee for the night and the projects were impressive, to say the least. If you'd like to check out all the winners from the event, you can head to our LinkedIn feed and you'll be able to see who won and where. You can head to our LinkedIn feed and you'll be able to see who won and where, including the T3 Collingwood project, which was an outstanding choice from the amongst the winners for the awards.

Speaker 1: 5:34

I'm staying in Australia now, and there is a landmark decision between two large bodies here in Australia. The National Construction Industry Forum, the NCIF, and the Australian Constructors Association have come together to work out how they can work together to foster a long-term blueprint for a sustainable change within the construction industry. The forthcoming blueprint is expected to address critical issues such as industry culture, sustainability and change collaboration, and all while sitting together at the table at the same time with unions, contractors and government bodies to try and understand how to complement each other's support through a national construction strategy a national construction industry culture task force, the construction industry leadership forum and these efforts will be combined to yield tangible, measurable outcomes that will benefit the entire construction sector and to British Columbia. Now, and Langley Township is applying for a $1 million provincial fund for two planned mass timber buildings at Fire Hall that could start construction early as fall next year, autumn next year. The Township Council meeting on October 7th unanimously provided a clear indicator that they want to receive up to at least $500,000 for each project and they hope that the bid will be successful at some point. So Brookswood Fire Hall could start construction as soon as fall, and it would be an amazing and impressive feat for Langley to be able to build in mass timber.

Speaker 1: 7:18

So that's it, folks. That's all we've got time for this week in mass timber construction land. We hope you're having a great week looking forward to getting to near the end of the year. Don't forget the early bird registration for the International Mass Timber Conference in Portland, oregon, next year. Get your tickets, book your accommodation, make sure that you are on your way and look forward to catching up with you next week with some more news from around the world. Don't forget to hit subscribe and don't forget to look out for our shares on social media, our articles, our comments. Anything that you can contribute, that would be great. 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. So Thank you.