Mass Timber Market Updates - August 2023 - Week Thirtyfive

Prepare to embark on a truly global experience as we traverse the ins and outs of Mass Timber Construction, touching down in various continents to examine the most fascinating developments in the field. Your dedicated guide, Paul Kremer, takes you on an enlightening journey, starting in the United States where we look at the captivating images of concealed fixings for beam sections by Ralph Austin. We also zip to Singapore, where a project involving giant GLT beams is taking shape in the most intriguing way. 

In the latter part of our tour, New Zealand welcomes us with the newly opened Otago Polytechnic University, a model of forward-thinking teaching space, crafted with Mass Timber. Then, we glimpse into the future at the British Columbia government's upcoming building due to open in 2026. We wrap up by focusing on a recent study that touts the seismic benefits of mass timber buildings in mining sectors. Plus, I share some personal news about my appointment to the World Conference for Timber Engineering Committee for Australia 2025. So, get comfortable and let's delve into the incredible world of Mass Timber Construction.

Production by Deeelicious Beats
Music "Game Play" by Quality Quest
Podcast is a Mass Timber Construction Journal Production
www.masstimberconstruction.com

Sponsors of the Podcast:

International Association for Mass Timber Construction (IAMTC)
The International Association for Mass Timber Construction aims to promote and deliver value to its members and associated stakeholders through an all-encompassing approach to advocacy, thought-leadership, development for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing sectors, provide education, training/teaching and research in establishing a global mass timber construction sector across the five contents of the world.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Ladies and gentlemen, we are 5.
This is the moment you all havebeen waiting for.
It's 5.
4.

(00:21):
The global sensation, the one,the only, the oldest you say
that anyway Podcast in the world, the past Timber construction
podcast.
And now here's our driver, yourhost.

(00:48):
Good morning, good afternoon orgood evening wherever in the
world today.
Welcome to the Last TimberConstruction Podcast.
My name's Paul Cramer, yourhost, and I'll be walking you
through all of the global MassTimber news in the next few
minutes.
So sit back, relax, grab adrink, take some time out of
your day and listen to what Ihave to say to you.
And thank you very much, bruceBuffer, veteran voice of the

(01:11):
Octagon, doing the introduction.
Once again, don't forget, ifyou don't want to never miss an
episode is what I'm trying tosay Of this podcast please go
and hit the subscribe button andmake sure that you download us
on a frequent basis so you getan understanding of what's
happening on the global stage.
Let's take a look at what'smaking news around the world in

(01:33):
Mass Timber Construction landand coming out of the US right
now, and Ralph Austin, who's thefounder of Seagate Mass Timber
Structures, has been postingsome pictures of concealed
fixings for beam sections thatare going up in the Charm City
project.
If you go to our Mass TimberConstruction Journal LinkedIn

(01:54):
feed you'll be able to see theproject there, impressive images
, some quite amazing connectiondetails, including some pixel
connections and some otherconnections that are related to
the joining of the beams to thecolumns.
And good friend to the podcastout of Singapore, kevin Hill,
has posted some impressiveimages of the amazing project

(02:19):
that he's working on, which is alarge GLT, 1.4-metre square by
19-metre volume, about 1.3 cubicmetres per run of these
monsters 15 tonne they are, andthey're going into a project

(02:40):
which we're not really too sureabout.
The post doesn't say but it's acanopy project in Singapore, so
look out for that.
If you go to the Mass TimberConstruction Journal LinkedIn
feed, you'll be able to see theimpressive images of the beams
being lifted, rotated andtransported ready for
installation.

(03:01):
And a project or a series ofprojects that are associated and
very closely linked to the workand my time at XLAM is the
Otago Polytechnic University orvocational TAFE type institution
and it has just opened its newteaching space.

(03:21):
So the building that they haveopened is called a hub.
It shares spaces with otherdegrees and certificate level
programs in civil, mechanicaland electrical engineering,
quantity surveying, and is theNZ Diploma of Construction.
It's a primary degree that'staught out of there.
The building itself is futurefocused design thinking,

(03:43):
including living buildingchallenge principles.
It's got laminated the nearlumber as well as cross
laminated timber, and if you goto our LinkedIn feed, you'll be
able to see the opening of thetrades training school that
recently occurred just about aweek ago.
We've previously reported on theBC, british Columbia's
government new building, whichwill open to the public in 2026,

(04:07):
which is a 15,200 square meterstate-of-the-art facility which
will house the provincesarchives and collections, and so
construction is now underwayfor the Royal BC Museum, and
this is a mass timber buildingin Colwood's new Royal Bay
neighborhood.

(04:27):
We have reported on thispreviously, and it's really
great to see that there's morecoverage coming through, with
the Minister of Tourism, artsand Culture speaking to the
Vancouver Island CTV Newsca.
That is VancouverIslandctvnewsca.

(04:49):
If you go there, you'll be ableto see the full interview, and
there's also some great rendersfor the project.
So if you're interested inhaving a look at that, please
check it out, or head to theMass Timber Construction Journal
LinkedIn feed and you can seethe article there, and finally,
this week, a study has beenreleased which suggests that
people should use mass timberbuildings rather than

(05:12):
traditional construction methodsaround mine sites, and this is
generally due to its seismicvolatility in those areas, and
so the report that was supportedby the Thunder Bay based Centre
for Research and Innovation inBioeconomy focused on the use of
using CLT for the miningsectors infrastructure.

(05:33):
So that's it, folks.
That's all we've got time forthis week in mass timber
construction land.
Just a couple of announcementsfor you.
I have been very privileged tobe asked to sit on the World
Conference for TimberEngineering Committee for
Australia 2025.
As you may know, the conferencewas in Norway this year and in
2025 it will be in Brisbane,australia, and I have been asked

(05:58):
to be part of the steeringcommittee to be on that panel to
support efforts to make this aworld-class event.
So if you are thinking aboutplanning a trip and it's in two
years time and it needs to besomething that's written off for
work specifically aroundengineering, construction or
architecture, consider Brisbane2025 and the World Conference

(06:21):
for Timber Engineering, and ifyou are out there and you're
thinking about a sponsorship forsuch an event in a lovely place
as Brisbane.
Please reach out to memasstimberconstructionjournalcom
, or you can hit up me up on aDM through the mass timber
construction journal LinkedInfeed, and I would be very

(06:42):
pleased to support andfacilitate a conversation about
how we can make that happen.
So, good morning, goodafternoon or good evening.
Wherever you are in the worldtoday, have a great time and
I'll speak to you next week.
This is Paul Kramer signing off.