Category Archives: Wood, Paper & Green Building

Rewild Homes

Local governments want the province to help make building tiny homes easier. Tobi Elliott, who advocates for tiny homes as an alternative and more affordable form of housing, said they exist in a “regulatory grey area.” … Tiny homes can be a form of “missing middle” housing in rural communities like the Gulf Islands, Elliott said. But building them can be difficult because the B.C. Building Code doesn’t directly address them and some of the standards are difficult to meet when building a tiny home, Elliott said. …The Union of B.C. Municipalities asked the province to review its code to recognize tiny homes and provide building requirements for them to make the process easier on local governments. …Because the homes exist in such a grey area, insurance companies are unsure how to handle them, and her clients have had quotes ranging from $800 to $3,000 per year for their tiny home, Robertson said.

Three years ago … the B.C. government … began planning how to … [use] wood as the structural skeleton for tall buildings instead of traditional cement and steel. It was a lofty goal that’s being emulated in cities around the world. To do it, B.C. created the Office of Mass Timber Implementation (OMTI), the first government office in the world with a broad and powerful mandate to make it easier to build with mass timber — a catch-all term that encompasses a variety of engineered products made up of smaller pieces of wood often held together with adhesives. But documents obtained by CBC News … show the OMTI was so concerned about public discussion of so-called “tall wood” buildings — those higher than six storeys — that it barred municipalities from building them unless they guaranteed their local fire officials would be aligned with planning and building departments regarding any concerns they might have, including fire risks.

This edition of the naturally:wood newsletter includes: Make your next mass timber project a success: naturally:wood has compiled over 10 tools and resources to help navigate and resolve design and construction blockers that arise through concept and development planning. …Mass timber solutions for local governments: Simon Fraser University has developed three guides to help local governments develop policies and regulations that support mid-rise mass timber construction in BC. The guides offer design guidance to amend community plans and outline opportunities for senior government officials and the building sector to contribute to successful mass timber projects and help scale this innovative building form throughout the province. …Help us improve naturally:wood: Our newsletter is increasing in popularity with building, design, and forestry communities. Please complete a short multiple choice survey to help inform our editorial program moving forward. If you have not already completed the survey, please take a few minutes to do so now – your opinion matters!

Images of the new PNE amphitheatre designed by Revery Architecture have been released, showing a massive, curved roof covering a large outdoor venue space. …Designed with a capacity of 10,000 people, the huge new venue is expected to cost around $70 million. …Construction is expected to begin next year with a grand opening in 2026. “We wanted to create a unique experience for both the audience and performers, in a world-class amphitheatre,” says Venelin Kokalov of Revery. “Our architectural solution was an elegant structure that will cover the amphitheatre, gracefully landing on three points into the landscape.” …”The Amphitheatre’s precedent-setting starburst timber arch roof will be one of the largest in the world.”. The design is also being built to LEED, Passive House (Passivhaus) and Salmon-Safe standards.

VANCOUVER – It has been two years, but University of British Columbia architecture student Katie Theall can vividly recall the”surreal moment” when their team learned it had received a site on the Vancouver campus to build a “carbon-minimal” student space.  …As the project’s architecture lead, Theall guided a team of 60 university students from engineering, architecture, business and arts to fundraise $1.85 million and build the hempcrete building on campus — from plans to plaster — all within two years.  Construction workers are putting the final touches on the building this week.  …The building is wood framed, while the thermal insulation is made of hempcrete, a mixture of hemp fibres, lime and water, which produces a much smaller carbon footprint than concrete construction, Theall said.  She said the students mixed the hempcrete in a drum, bringing it to the consistency of oatmeal. They then used buckets to pour it into the two-by-four wood frame.

Richard Cannings

Last week, I attended the annual conference of the Council of Forest Industries (COFI) in Prince George. …I was encouraged by strong elements of optimism that came up in discussions around First Nations partnerships, the need for more environmental sustainability, and opportunities for getting more value and jobs out of fewer trees. One topic that came up repeatedly as a way to increase that value was the increasing use of mass timber in large buildings. …I’ve been pressing the federal government for the last seven years to support mass timber efforts through procurement projects, modernized building codes and training for architects and builders. My private members bill doing just that is now through committee in the House of Commons and will likely pass unanimously to become law before our summer recess.

Affordable student housing has become a bit of a dream, but it’s one that will soon come true for some Okanagan College students. There are three student housing projects in progress at Okanagan College, including a 60-bed mass-timber facility at the Salmon Arm campus, where construction crews will break ground this spring. …The Salmon Arm student housing project is scheduled to be open to students for the Fall 2024 semester and has a price tag of $13 million. It will be constructed using mass timber and is designed to meet Step 4 of the B.C Energy Code.

The Global Buyers Mission will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year! September 7th to 9th, we will invite international buyers and specifiers to meet our Canadian suppliers in Whistler for the celebration event! We expect many new Buyers this year, and with the help of our overseas staff, the continued assistance of the federal International Trade Commissioner Service and the provincial Trade & Investment Representatives abroad, we expect a good showing from across the globe. Concurrent with the GBM Trade Event, we will host BC Wood’s AGM, deliver WoodTALKS and host the Building Connections program. All these activities are designed to expand our Canadian wood products industry’s international business opportunities. As in the past, pre-registration will be required to participate in the GBM, and we should have the online registration system open very soon! To make sure you are on the invitation list, please email gbm@bcwood.com.

Jackson Wyatt has always had a thing for sustainability. …In 2021, he launched CABN, which builds net-zero homes that don’t come with astronomical price tags. The prefabricated houses are available in four sizes ranging from one to four bedrooms. Their smallest house measures 540 square feet and costs $219,000; their largest is 1,850 square feet and costs $549,000. All their models are move-in ready in five weeks, in part because their main component, cross-laminated timber, is easily transportable­—allowing the homes to be built in a weather-controlled facility and moved to a person’s lot once finished. …CABN’s first two-bedroom show home opened in Mallorytown, Ontario, in early April.