Mass Timber Market Updates - Feb 2025 - Week Eight

Ready to revolutionize your understanding of mass timber construction? Discover the future of sustainable architecture with our latest episode of the Mass Timber Construction Podcast. Host Paul Kremer takes you on an exhilarating journey through groundbreaking projects from around the globe. From the award-winning, eco-friendly Maths Hub at Barker College designed by Architectus to the biophilic marvel of the RecWell facility in Connecticut, we promise you insights into how these structures are not just built to last, but to harmonize with their environments. 

Our worldwide expedition also highlights Gensler's stunning stadium design for Egypt's Al-Ahly Football Club, featuring a unique sunken pitch for passive cooling. Across the ocean in Australia, Rubner Engineering's multi-story timber building at the University of Newcastle exemplifies the pinnacle of sustainable educational spaces. And let's not forget the magnificent glulam roof structure crowning Sydney's new fish markets—proof that mass timber is reshaping modern architecture. Tune in as we celebrate these marvels of ingenuity, and get ready to view mass timber construction through a whole new lens.

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 Kramer, your host. Good morning, good afternoon or good evening wherever you are in the world today. Welcome to the Mass Timber Construction Podcast. My name is Paul Kramer, your host. Welcome to another weekly episode. Thank you for tuning in each week. Thank you for subscribing.

Speaker 1: 2:00

Don't forget to get along to the International Mass mass timber conference. If you're truly looking to understand and elevate your knowledge and experience around mass timber and trying to build networks, get to Portland at the end of May. It truly is an amazing event. So if you can get along, please do get along and go and say hello to Arnie for me. Let's have a look at what's making news around the world this week. In mass timber construction, land and sustainability led design approach helped architectus deliver a multi-award winning mass timber building for Barker College Maths Hub and, talking to architecturaldesigncomau, architecturaldesigncomau, sam Morris said that the Maths Lab not only won the prestigious Australian Institute of Architects New South Wales Milo Dunphy Award for Sustainable Architecture, but also the Editor's Choice Award for 2024 for the Sustainability Awards, where architectus was a broad-reaching approach to sustainable design and this was acknowledged by the judges. If you'd like to go and read more about that, you can jump on our LinkedIn feed or go to architectureanddesigncomau and have a look at the story located on there featuring Sam Morris. Congratulations, architectus.

Speaker 1: 3:25

And to Connecticut now. And supporting wellness with biophilic design. There is a structure composed of CLT designed well for the RecWell facility, which draws upon principles of biophilia, including natural elements of wood paneling, local stone and interior green walls. A key consideration when realizing the university's goal for connecting building occupants to the surrounding Connecticut landscape was the expansive windows that helped deliver views of the outdoors, including Sleepin' Giant State Park, one of Connecticut's most loved state parks and one of the four. Fitness studio features a fully retractable wall leading to an outdoor deck in an indoor outdoor workout area. The photos are impressive for this building. The exposed mass timber is impressive, the combination of glass and the very large apertures for the windows. It's an impressive site. Head to our our LinkedIn feed and you can have a look.

Speaker 1: 4:22

And architecture giant studio Gensler has unveiled its design for an undulating stadium outside Cairo, which will be the first home for the Al-Ahly Football Club. Gensler collaborated with engineering firm Bureau Happold for the football team's invest to build a 42,000 seat stadium which will feature a curved asymmetric facade and sunken football pitch designed as a landmark, built around the club's city master plan. This will be the first home of the stadium's egypt's top tier club to host for large-scale events throughout the year. Located near the sinks, the Sphinx International Airport, between Cairo and Alexandra, gensler designed the stadium's pitch to be submerged into the ground to comply with height restrictions due to the flight paths and, according to the studio, the sunken pitch will benefit from passive cooling from the surrounding earth. This is an impressive project and one of three major mass timber glue laminated timber structures that's popping up in design realms around the world. Go and have a look at it on our LinkedIn feed or head to Gensler's page and have a look there. And Rubner Engineering reports that the last two months of construction of the three-story building at the University of Newcastle's Central Coast New South Wales campus has progressed rapidly. As the first multi-story timber building in Gosford delivered by Rubner Engineering along with the local partners, it is a benchmark for sustainability in education spaces.

Speaker 1: 6:01

You can go and have a look at this impressive glulam structure with CLT floor system. You guessed it. You can head to our LinkedIn feed and the roof structure for the multiplex built fish market has now been completed, with 407 multifunctional cassettes were assembled at glebe island before being barged to the project to secure the 200 meter glulam roof structure for the fish markets. This is an impressive installation with a huge effort from all teams from all over the world, including nine months of putting this roof structure together, with a massive thank you from Multiplex to all the subcontractors, the consultants and all the suppliers as a pivotal moment. If you want to go and see the completed structure, you can head to our LinkedIn feed or you could head to Multiplex's page and have a look there.

Speaker 1: 6:59

So that's it, folks. That's all we've got time for this week in Mass Timber Construction Land. I hope that you're keeping well. Do make sure that you subscribe, like, share, comment and listen to the podcast. Subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode and we look forward to catching up with you very soon. Don't forget all the special guest episodes. We just had Nate on the show talking about the Brock Commons project, as well as the M1 Google, which is the predecessor to all the Google that's been putting forward recently conducted in 2019. And you can catch up with many, many other episodes to learn more about mass timber construction. Please do keep an eye out for our linkedin feed and if you've got an article that you want to submit to an academic journal, please consider us. 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.