Mass Timber Construction Podcast
Mass Timber Construction Podcast
Mass Timber Market Updates - June 2025 - Week TwentyTwo
The world of mass timber construction continues to evolve at breathtaking speed, with groundbreaking projects reshaping our built environment. This week, we journey across North America and the UK to spotlight remarkable structures that showcase the versatility, sustainability, and sheer beauty of engineered wood.
Vancouver's stunning 10-story Hive office building stands as a testament to mass timber's artistic potential, with Dialog's design featuring intricate connection systems that blend form and function seamlessly. The structure exemplifies how commercial buildings can become architectural showcases while meeting rigorous performance standards. Meanwhile, sustainability champion Kevin McLeod of Grand Designs UK brings his expertise to the Built by Nature Prize 2025, elevating recognition for excellence in sustainable construction.
We challenge conventional thinking with insights from TYLin Justin, who argues that retrofitting existing structures often trumps new mass timber construction from a sustainability perspective. His concept of "hybrid, optimized buildings" offers a thoughtful middle path that embraces circular economy principles. Across the pond, Aberdeen's £29 million River Bank School demonstrates mass timber's ability to serve complex institutional needs while slashing carbon emissions by an impressive 2,510 tons compared to conventional methods.
Quebec celebrates a milestone with La Pache Town Hall becoming the province's first Passive House Certified institutional building, showcasing how mass timber elements like glulam, CLT, and western red cedar create biophilic spaces that harness natural light and solar gain. And in Toronto, an innovative 78-unit affordable housing development will rise in just 6-8 weeks using CLT—dramatically faster than the 6-7 months required for traditional concrete construction, proving that mass timber can simultaneously address housing needs and climate concerns.
Join our growing community of mass timber enthusiasts by liking, sharing and subscribing to the podcast. Your support helps us continue bringing you the latest developments in this revolutionary construction approach that's reshaping our world, one wooden building at a time.
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 Team Construction Podcast. My name is Paul Kramer, your host. Welcome to another exciting episode of the podcast.
Speaker 1:It is the middle of winter here. I hope it's really warm in the southern hemisphere. It's in June now and the sun should be shining, as it is not for us here in the southern hemisphere, but certainly we're keeping warm and there's lots of really good news to warm the cockles of your heart. Let's have a look at what's making news around the world this week in Mass Timber Construction Land land, and Andrea Newton has posted on our LinkedIn feed that she had the opportunity to go to the hive at 2150 Keith Drive in Vancouver, bc, to have a look at the 10-story office building designed by Dialogue. The project is a stunning piece of artwork as well as a building that is purpose built. It is impressive and you should go and have a look at the intricate details within all of the connection systems and the structural systems within this building. The Hive is a standout project by Dialog and you should have a look at it on our LinkedIn feed. And we found out this week that the host of Grand Designs UK, kevin MacLeod, has joined the judging panel for the Built by Nature Prize for 2025. The prize portal is open and will remain open until Sunday, june 8. If you're interested, please get your entries in, and congratulations to Built by Nature for getting Kevin mcleod to come on as a judge.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite posts for the week has been an episode on structural design and engineering for hyper optimized buildings and looking at the smartest choices for why we should save old structures that can be the most sustainable, because, as we know, the most sustainable building is a building we do not have to build using another building. Retrofitting another building, stripping the building back to its base build, adapting, adopting and adjusting to suit our needs, and then reparating that building and making it new again, is a really good way to embody circular economy principles. So Justin Denhader, who's a principal engineer at TY Lynn. He shares his views on that in a video that we've posted on our LinkedIn feed. So if you'd like to go and learn about why you should use existing buildings, why using mass timber buildings is not the best use of mass timber and how a hybrid, optimized building is a way to go.
Speaker 1:And over to the uk now, and the aberdeen city council has taken ownership of its 29 million dollar 29 million pound $29 million New River Bank School. Over to the UK now, and the Aberdeen City Council has taken ownership of its £29 million New River Bank School, built using CLT by Robertson Construction Eastern. The 6,784 square metre three-stream school provides high-quality learning environment with up to 651 primary age pupils or students, alongside early learning and nursery provision for up to 60 students. The facilities include a gym hall, dance studio, dining hall, staff and administration areas. Robertson led the construction phase for the two-story building, including its design, engineering and build with the frame using CLT. The use of CLT delivered a 2,510 ton carbon dioxide equivalent reduction in embodied carbon in the project, placing it in the sector leading of example of low carbon design. The school has a draft energy performance rating of a, which might mean something to those people who are existing in the uk.
Speaker 1:Congratulations to the entire team on this amazing project and I I hope I pronounced this name correctly, but La Pache Town Hall has become the first Passive House Certified Institutional Building in Quebec, canada. The new hall is built, produced using mass timber, using highly efficient building materials and soon became the first Passive House Institutional Building in Quebec. Rectangular in shape and located on the east-west axis, the building was by BGLA Architecture and Urban Design and features a long facade which faces a southerly direction onto the main road. The facade offers views of the hills, the local park and using natural solar gain to serve the building's primary heating source. The presence of wood inside feels like it is an incredible biophilic experience, with cladding and facade elements, the glulam, the clt and western wedge cedar sitting inside. That the mechanical systems are fully integrated and the sloping sections in the roof is it's a sawtooth roof and allows light to come in from the outside. If you want to have a look at these impressive photos of this impressive building, please head to our LinkedIn feed.
Speaker 1:And heading to Toronto, canada. Now. And the CLT superstructure for the former Kingston market, which will house a 78 unit affordable housing project, is set to rise this summer. Produced from cross-laminated timber, including an elevator core, it's designed by Montgomery Sassam Architects and they chose CLT superstructure floors, roofs, exterior walls partly because it was erected by a single trade in six to eight weeks rather than six to seven months and conventional concrete construction because of its sustainability benefits and while dealing with climate crisis, they have opted to have a construction operation of the buildings that sits in a lower emissions category. The Gillum Group is designer of the building, and the building is at Bellevue Avenue, and CLT will be supplied by Element 5.
Speaker 1:So that's it, folks. That's all we've got time for in mass timber construction land this week. We hope you have a great week. Please don't forget to like, share, subscribe or react to our comment. We really do appreciate your feedback and support and we'll catch up with you 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 Team Construction Podcast. Thank you, bye.