Mass Timber Construction Podcast
Mass Timber Construction Podcast
Mass Timber Market Updates - August 2025 - Week ThirtyOne
Global innovations in mass timber construction are taking centre stage as sustainable building practices continue to evolve worldwide. Our latest roundup takes you on a journey across three continents to explore cutting-edge projects that demonstrate the versatility, beauty, and environmental benefits of engineered wood construction.
We start in Canada, where the Carmen Corbasso Community Centre has unveiled a stunning renovation featuring an impressive glulam structure spanning its swimming pool—creating one of the most visually striking indoor aquatic facilities you'll see anywhere. Moving to London, we explore the London School of Economics' ambitious £100 million retrofit project that will become the UK's largest passive house retrofit building, incorporating cross-laminated timber to breathe new life into a 1950s structure while significantly expanding its footprint and sustainability credentials.
Berlin's Dockyard offers another perspective on timber innovation with its seven-story hybrid construction featuring sustainable beech trusswark and thoughtful design elements that reflect its waterfront setting. Not to be outdone, Amsterdam's DPG Media headquarters stands as one of Europe's leading timber-hybrid office buildings, incorporating 7,000 cubic metres of CLT while housing complex media production facilities. For residential applications, we examine Germany's TricBric project using innovative dowel-jointed timber blocks, while perhaps most significantly, we share groundbreaking news from Canada where developer Neutral has achieved a critical three-hour fire test for mass timber assemblies—potentially revolutionising how we approach building codes and regulations for tall timber structures.
The mass timber revolution continues to gain momentum, with these projects demonstrating how engineered wood can meet diverse architectural challenges while offering substantial environmental benefits. Don't forget to enter the Rothoblast "Build the Impossible" competition before year-end, and secure your tickets for the 10th anniversary International Mass Timber Conference in Portland next year. Subscribe now to stay updated on the latest developments as we track the growth of sustainable construction worldwide.
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 all-disputed heavyweight podcast in the world the Fast Timber Construction Podcast. And now here's Paul Cramer, your host, voice of the octagon. Don't forget the rothoblast build the impossible. Competition is on now. Get your entries in. It is not too long before the end of the year and that competition will close and go to judges for finalization and then announcement of the winner. Don't forget, the international mass cinema conference is coming up in portland, oregon next year. It's the 10th year anniversary, 2016 to 2026. Get your tickets. It'll be an amazing event. There'll be special celebrations and presentations happening, I'm sure, this next year.
Speaker 1:Let's have a look at what's making news around the world this week in mass timber construction land and to Ontario, canada now. And the Carmen Corbasso Community Centre has opened the doors to its newly renovated and expanded recreation facility, which introduces mass timber into the fitness centre over the aerobics studio and over the swimming pool. This expanded from the existing building and the gymnasium complex. Diamond Schmidt has designed the centre's 45,000 square foot expansion with the aim to create a connection between the old and the new. Through the form and materiality. The work adds to the previous editions completed in the year 2000 and I must say the glulam structure sitting over the top of the pool is absolutely impressive. It's probably one of the best indoor swimming pools I have ever seen. Please do go check out the pictures on our linkedin feed. And to the uk now.
Speaker 1:And the 100 million pound contract awarded to mclaren constructions includes the retrofit and expansion of the existing 1950s building in the london school of economics and political science. Scheduled for completion in 2027. The project is expected to be the largest passive house retrofit building in the UK. Works to include the extension by David Chipperfield Architects. The building, located at 35 Lincolns in Field, will become the home to the Global Housing and Institute for Africa. Additional space for other LSE developments and departments will be also included. The building's original materials will be salvaged and plans for the top three floors, a rooftop plant area and closure will be demolished and replaced by cross-laminated timber extension, increasing the size of the building from 9,856 square meters to 11,848 square meters.
Speaker 1:There is much to like about this particular building. It has reclaimed materials, passive house mass timber and it's using an existing building in the center of the town area to basically regenerate the building, reuse, adaptive reuse. Congratulations to everybody on the team. An impressive project. I look forward to reporting on it throughout the year. And construction of office building with underground car park using sustainable hybrid timber technology.
Speaker 1:Dockyard is a modern seven-story building complex with an underground car park that was built in Berlin using sustainable climate and resource-friendly timber hybrid construction methods. The dockyard project comprises a square and rectangular building between which is a glazed linking structure with visible truss work made from sustainable construction beach. Two bottom stories are linking structure functions as an open, pillar-free passageway. The ceiling of the passageway is fitted with mirrored stainless steel sheets with onyx black, which create flowing reflections and attribute to the location the assembly directly on the water. The main facades of the two main buildings are glass-utilized facades with two-story grid and cornices and pillar strips. The south facades, overlooking the spree, are articulated by project bay windows that are offset by two floors and support balconies. The glass facades on the west and north and east have recessed loggins which are effectively offsets at every floor to make a dynamic shape. It's an impressive building. If you want to go and have a look at it, please do. It is featured on our LinkedIn page and has an amazing solar panel rooftop, community shared garden and facilities area. So check that out. It's a really truly impressive project.
Speaker 1:And to holland now. And amsterdam. And medivac serves as the dpg media's headquarters in amsterdam, designed by team v architects, it's one of europe's leading hybrid timber office buildings serving as the headquarters for DPG Media, and the 46,000 square meter building accommodates editorial offices, recording studios with multiple Dutch newspapers, magazines, radio stations inhabiting. The project was developed in collaboration with a real estate developer. The building uses hybrid structural approach, applying timber where possible and also steel and concrete. Great to see the trio of technologies coming together, with 7,000 cubic meters of cross-laminated timber sourced from Austrian production forests and using beamed columns and floor plates to create prefabricated elements and, obviously, create the building on site. Congratulations to the team. There's a finished pictures of the building the facade only. You can see them on our LinkedIn feed or go and do your own research and look at DPG's media headquarters in Amsterdam, and the local startup using dowel-jointed timber blocks called Trickbrick has used hybrid timber concrete construction in southwest Germany as an eco-friendly public housing project, using prefabricated timber blocks to slot together with dowels rather than mortar and glue.
Speaker 1:Concrete is used for the foundations and lower sections of the wall, as well as the apartment dividing walls to improve sound insulation and fire resistance. Around 2,000 bricks are being installed on the site, with construction managed by a local contractor. If you want to have a look at these incredible little trick bricks, you can actually go and see it. It's T-R-I-Q-B-R-I-Q and you can have a look at the images and a link to the article on our LinkedIn feed and some impressive news coming out of Canada. Neutral, the property developer, pushes the results of its successful, first-of-a-kind three-hour fire test for its hybrid mass timber building assembly with standard connections for free use by industry practitioners. The results help solidify the future of building with mass timber and contribute to larger trends towards sustainable construction. Neutral is the real estate development company focused on creating sustainable and healthy mixed-use communities, implementing mass timber as a sustainable alternative to conventional construction. If you want to have a look at the impressive image of the fire system and then head to the LinkedIn page for us and you can actually have a look at the article that links you back to the details around this three-hour fire rating performance equivalency test done under the IBC construction type 1a tests, and the expectations for the results and how it might apply to projects in the future.
Speaker 1:That's it, folks. That's all we've got time for this week in Mass Timber Construction Land. We hope you've had an amazing week. We look forward to bringing you more news next week as Mass Timber grows around the world. This is Paul Kramer signing off. Good morning, good afternoon or good evening. Wherever you are in the world today, have a great week. See you next week. Don't forget to hit subscribe. Thank you, bye.