Mass Timber Construction Podcast
Mass Timber Construction Podcast
Mass Timber Market Updates - December 2025 - Week FortyNie
Headlines change fast, but this week’s timber stories carry real weight. We start with a personal moment that grounds the show, then move into a tour of breakthroughs and big bets shaping the future of low-carbon construction. From a landmark conference to a new connection system and skyline-defining projects, the conversation is all about making mass timber faster, stronger, and more visible.
We share updates on the International Mass Timber Conference as it heads into a milestone year, reflecting on how a decade of shared research and community has pushed the industry forward. Then we break down Rothoblaas’ Radial connection system and why factory pre-installation, tighter tolerances, and rapid on-site assembly matter to developers and contractors chasing schedule certainty and cost control. If you care about embodied carbon and buildability, these details are the difference between an idea and a signed contract.
Our global tour continues with planning approval for a mixed use campus in Shoreditch, where creative retrofit meets new-build to strengthen the public realm. In Texas, a 212,000-square-foot Mass Timber Experiential Learning Hub at Texas A&M ties regional sourcing to a bold educational vision set to open in 2028. And in Sydney, Atlassian Central’s hybrid timber frame reveals lush “habitats” that make climate leadership tangible in a major commercial tower anchoring the city’s tech precinct.
We close with a major signal from Big Tech: Amazon’s full-scale mass timber trials for data centres. When logistics giants aim to cut embodied carbon without sacrificing speed or reliability, suppliers, engineers, and insurers all pay attention. That momentum, combined with Microsoft and Google exploring similar paths, suggests mass timber is moving from showcase to standard in mission-critical facilities. Subscribe, share with a colleague who needs a spark, and tell us: which project points most clearly to the future you want to build?
Ladies and gentlemen, we are alive. This is the moment you are in the window. Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening with everywhere in the world today. Welcome to the Mass Two Reconstruction Podcast. This is Paul Cramer, your host, and I have to apologize to everybody. Unfortunately, I've had some very tragic family news. My mother has uh suffered wrong with dementia and unfortunately has um departed this world with great grace and dignity. Um she'll be missed by all, however, it has interrupted significantly the podcast, so I do need to apologize to everybody who's listening to the podcast on a regular basis, and uh, I'm sorry for the disruption and interruption. But the show must go on, as my mum would say, and she'd be very proud to keep going. So let's have a look at what's making news around the world this week in Mass Timber Construction Land. And don't forget the International Mass Timber Conference celebrating its 10th year in Portland, Oregon, coming up next year in 2026. Get your tickets quick because the early bird rates will start to drop off all the way in the lead up to the conference. Make sure you book your flights or get your hotel accommodation because it's usually very, very busy around that time of year, and you don't want to miss out on getting to Portland to see this monumental event. And thank you to the International Mass Timber Conference uh team who have been dedicated to advancing the technology for over 10-11 years now. Um, if you think about the lead up to the original conference in 2015-2016, and uh thank you for everything that you do, it is an amazing event. Uh, congratulations to all of those that also went to um Innsbruck uh this year in early December. I hope you had a great time, and uh, I hope that there's many sharing of stories, research, ideas, and connections that you will make around the world to progress this amazing technology. And great supporters of the podcast, Rotha Blast have come up with a new concept called Radial, a new era in connections. It is a revolutionary, efficient, reliable, and sustainable modern construction connection. It's got a patented design which refines traditional assembly processes with two semicircular plates that can be pre-installed in the factory, reducing on-site work to the simple fastening of a few bolts. And the streamlined approach accelerates installation and minimizes the costs of labor. For demanding projects, this precision and adaptability of the system allows for tensile connections with high installation tolerances, and you can go and have a look at the amazing connection system using the apex of our beam system that's coming together as part of their video, and you'll see that it has a connection for CLT and GLT panels, providing a resilience in many directions. It has a hinge connection for glue lamb beam types for stability and flexibility, and it uses S355 carbon steel and a surface treatment which offers exceptional strength. So, congratulations to the team at Rother Blast for always breaking the barriers of innovation and look out for radio, and I'm sure it'll probably feature in the next Build the Impossible competition, potentially in 2026. Over to the UK now and Singer Studios in Shoreditch, England. The general projects win approval for the landmark mixed use campus in Shoreditch. The plans for Singer Studios outline the creative retrofit of two existing buildings and construction of three buildings close to the old street underground station. The mixed use site includes long stay apartment hotels, hotel style buildings, a new standalone creative headquarters accessible to the public realm and the small-scale retail units designed for the local business. We've got some great uh artist impressions, concept drawings for the project. If you'd like to check them out, go head to our LinkedIn feed. And heading to Texas now, and Mass Timber building breaks ground at Texas AM College Station in Texas. The AM university has broken ground on the 250 million Mass Timber Experiential Learning Hub. The sustainably designed building located across from Kyle Football Field Stadium will serve as the university's new visitor center. The three-story Alpen Center will transform hospitality, retail, and marketing education when it opens in 2028. Nearly 212,000 square feet. It will use timber source from local Texas sawmills and it will be contracting around 60 million towards the particular project. Congratulations for everybody involved in this incredible project. We look forward to seeing the videos and site footage as soon as it comes through. And we're darting around the place and to Sydney, Australia, where the Sydney skyline is changing to reveal the first of the timber habitats at the Atlassian Central, the world's tallest hybrid timber commercial building owned by Dexus and Atlassian. Atlassian Central is going to showcase around 10,000 cubic meters of glue lamb, CLT, and spruce timber that is going to be the culmination of habitats in a visionary design, challenging climate leadership in a workplace innovation and a catalyst for change in this heart of the Sydney's new tech central precinct, which is what Atlassian's anchoring right now. The images coming through are quite impressive. There's one with a balcony where there are attendees at the building sitting inside one of the habitats, and you can see the enormity of this project when you have a look at this particular photo. So if you want to check it out, you know where to go. And we previously had Mikaela Harms on the show talking about Amazon's strategy to use mass timber, and we have an article this month that's come out talking about the fact that Amazon has chosen mass timber for its data centers, and they did a full-scale test and trial to analyze and refine greener ways to run their high-volume delivery networks. The goal was simple keep packages moving at full speed while learning how to cut emissions and waste across Amazon's vast supply chain. Congratulations to Amazon now leading the pack with Microsoft and Google and others in taking a stake in Mass Timber, specifically around data centers. So that's it, folks. That's all we've got time for this week in Mass Timber Construction Land. I look forward to bringing you more news next week. Once again, apologies for my absence, unfortunately. Family comes first, and I implore you all to give your loved ones a big hug and uh and express your love because sometimes it can be very cut short. Uh, I really appreciate you sticking by the podcast and thank you very much for everything in 2026. I look forward to bringing you in another episode very, very soon. 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.