Mass Timber Construction Podcast
Mass Timber Construction Podcast
Mass Timber Market Updates - Mar 2025 - Week Thirteen
Fresh from the "biggest and best" International Mass Timber Conference in Portland, the mass timber construction landscape continues to evolve with groundbreaking projects and challenges emerging worldwide. For those who attended the conference, congratulations on being part of this influential gathering—and for those planning next year's trip, book your accommodations early!
The spotlight shines on several remarkable developments this week. Melbourne's Bendigo Government Hub stands as a $90 million testament to mass timber's economic impact, generating 200 jobs and injecting $131 million into the local economy. Meanwhile, at Barcelona's Valldaura Labs campus, innovation takes center stage with the "Cathedral of Robotics Artisans" (CORA), where KUKA robots craft cross-laminated timber structures supporting green roof systems—a fascinating marriage of traditional materials and cutting-edge technology.
London joins the mass timber movement as British developer BAM secures a major contract to revamp the 34-story Broadgate Tower. Their sustainability-focused plan includes a three-story extension using reused steel and cross-laminated timber, crowned with a substantial rooftop terrace. Not all developments proceed smoothly, however—Tasmania's proposed waterfront stadium with its impressive glulam roof structure has become the center of controversy, with Cricket Australia raising concerns about shadows affecting gameplay and calling for a retractable solution. Meanwhile, CETRA Group's shift from continuous to periodic production signals market adjustments affecting workforce stability in the industry.
These developments reveal both the tremendous potential and real-world challenges facing mass timber construction. Whether you're a seasoned professional, researcher, or enthusiast, your engagement matters—like, share, and comment on our LinkedIn posts, submit manuscripts for our journal review, and join us weekly as we continue tracking this revolutionary building movement across the globe. The future of sustainable construction is taking shape right now, and we're documenting every fascinating moment of its evolution.
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 Rambler, 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 Mark Rambler, your host, and if you're traveling back from Portland right now, you would have had an amazing week in that lovely city visiting the International Mass Timber Conference. It had an amazing week in that lovely city visiting the international mass timber conference. It was an amazing event. I saw many, many, many faces online posting about their intrepid adventures around portland and around the conference and had many, many messages of communication from portland explaining that they were having a fantastic time. So if you got along to the International Mass Timber Conference the biggest and best so far then congratulations and look forward to booking your ticket for next year so that you can get in early and get that accommodation spot that you actually wanted, not the one you ended up with.
Speaker 1:Let's have a look at what's making news around the world this week in mass timber construction land and to melbourne, australia, first, and the bendigo gov hub, which stands for government hub, in a regional city called bendigo, has a 90 million dollar mass timber construction project that was delivered a few years ago. It was around 200 jobs that were created, $131 million boost to the local economy, and it has just been exposé in an online article. So if you'd like to have a look at this impressive mass timber building for a government institute, please do head along to our LinkedIn feed. And to spain, and there is an amazing series of images of a kuka robot for the valdura labs campus in barcelona, the home to the industrial robot workshop that was created in the institute for advanced architecture in catalonia. The project that they are working on is called Cathedral of Robotics Artisans, or CORA, and the structure is made of cross-laminated timber using both roof and frame systems, enabling a green roof system using this genomic type construction. If you'd like to have a look, obviously you can head to our LinkedIn feed and if you're in Barcelona, you can participate in a master in advanced architecture and bio cities course or program and you can play with the KUKA robot and Mastim products.
Speaker 1:And heading across to London now, and British developer BAM is set to deliver a major revamp of 34 story broad gate tower in the city of London. The project wins a major revamp of 34-story Broadgate Tower in the City of London. The project wins a major coup for BAM and the Square Mile, which beat rival bids from Waters and McLaren to take over the major revamp of the 2008 built tower building. The British land aims to bring building to its highest sustainability standards by adding a three-story extension to the front of the landmark at Broadgate campus. The building will be constructed using reused steel and cross-laminated timber, topped with 6,200 square feet of terrace. Impressive renders for this particular project Head to our LinkedIn feed to to read more.
Speaker 1:I'm back to australia now. In a bit of controversy over tasmania's proposed waterfront stadium with its amazing glulam roof structure, cricket. Australia has said that the shadows cast by the glulam structure may interfere with the gameplay and are calling for a retractable roof system. The afl, the Australian Football League, has said no. It's standing firm on the design that has been awarded. So it's going to be an interesting tussle to see whether the two sporting bodies are going to win out in the battle here. Let's hope that some form of a glulam structure exists, because that project is impressive. If you haven't seen the renders of this amazing football ground, you can head to our LinkedIn feed.
Speaker 1:And Cetra Group has restructured its production to align with market demand and is transitioning from continuous production to periodic production of its CLT and wood components facility, ensuring a long-term financial stability as a result of layoff notices for around 60 employees.
Speaker 1:This is a sign of the times for the demand of the different types of products globally and let's hope that we are able to stem the layoffs with increasing demand, but we also need increasing supply of timber to go with it. If you'd like to read more about what CETRA is doing, you can head to our LinkedIn feed. And that's it, folks. That's all we've got time for this week in Mass Timber Construction Land. Don't forget to like, subscribe, share, comment anything that has to do with mass timber on our LinkedIn feed. If you've got a journal manuscript, please send it in to us. We'd be very happy to review it and publish it if it meets the guidelines and the scope of our journal. And, of course, tune in every week as we bring you more episodes from around the world. 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,