WSP is advancing the use of low-carbon engineered wood products for tall building construction, which provides structural strength and durability beyond traditional lumber. Driven by demand for low-carbon buildings and enabled by advances in the manufacturing of engineered wood products, mass timber buildings are rapidly growing larger in size and capturing greater shares of construction markets in Europe, North America and elsewhere. In a response to this trend, building codes … now allow up to 18 stories, or 270 feet. Today, WSP staff in the U.S. and around the globe … are engaging with building developers, other firms in the building trades, industry groups and building officials to spread knowledge and advance best practices for mass timber construction. …Mass timber includes long-established product types, such as oriented strandboard, I-joists and glue-laminated beams and columns. While these product types continue to evolve, the most innovative and game changing mass-timber products are cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels.
The Tsawwassen First Nation (TFN) opened the doors to their new Youth Centre in late May, and in conjunction with Dürfeld Log & Timber hosted a tour of this iconic, culturally inspired building. Although it has been in use since 2021, due to Covid restrictions this was the first tour and visit provided for non-Tsawwassen guests. The tour began with a traditional drum song sang by Jesseca Adams, a welcoming prayer by Elder Ruth, and a historical overview of the Tsawwassen Nation by Karl Morgan. The TFN Youth Centre showcases the results of in-depth collaboration between Dr. Nancy Mackin Architecture, AIBC, AIA and Tsawwassen First Nation leaders, youth, artists, and elders. Their goal was to design a building that truly represents the culture and history of the Tsawwassen people, while meeting the needs of the community’s youth. During Covid the building was used not only as a youth centre but as a school for TFN children as well.
Families in the fast-growing Latoria community will soon have a new elementary school to meet their needs. The school will be built with an environmentally friendly design, focusing on reducing greenhouse gas emissions during construction and operation. …The Government of B.C. has approved $39.6 million to build the new south Langford elementary school. The Sooke School District has committed to contribute an additional $1 million. The new school will provide 480 seats and a better place to learn for students in the Latoria neighbourhood. …The school will be built using mass timber, a climate-friendly building practice that will reduce the overall carbon footprint of construction. B.C. is a world leader in the use of mass timber and has prioritized its use in the StrongerBC Economic Plan to align with the government’s goal of helping businesses and people transition to clean energy solutions. 
TORONTO — 100-unit mass timber affordable housing development – the first of its kind in Toronto – is being planned as a pilot on a parking lot along Dundas Street. The project is expected to get underway in 2024 and could become the model for future mass timber housing developments. The goal is to see if it can be replicated on other city-owned sites in Toronto. …Daniel Woolfson, manager of development at CreateTO… “This is another opportunity to create a sort of prefabricated off-site construction process.” …Although the project is in the early stages, the plan is to build an eight-to-10-storey affordable rental housing development using mass timber and prefabricated forms. …Mass timber is being used for the build because there was clear direction from the city under the TransformTO Net Zero Strategy. …also allowing the city to rapidly scale up the supply of affordable housing.
TORONTO — The building sector faces important challenges: labour shortages, the housing crisis, the need to implement innovative technologies while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. That is why organizations representing the whole value chain of Ontario’s building sector are collaborating in the Workforce 2030 Coalition to implement low-carbon training solutions and advance best practices on new materials. On June 1, the Workforce 2030 Coalition met to discuss the construction industry’s future and recommendations for the new Ontario government. …Meeting this unprecedented challenge requires Ontario’s building sector to add apprentices, experienced tradespeople, or recently reskilled workers. Eliminating emissions from buildings will require workers from across specializations including building material manufacturing, design, construction and trades, as well as in the operations of high-performance buildings. …Ontario can be a leader and set an example by releasing a clear path and timeline for the Ontario Building Code to be net-zero emissions ready. 
WATERLOO, Ontario — There may soon be a way for municipalities in Waterloo Region to set building requirements that exceed the provincial building code in an effort to move closer to the climate goal of net-zero buildings. It is called green development standards and it’s a way for municipalities to take action in making new buildings more sustainable in the long term without having to wait for changes to the Ontario Building Code, said Hayley Rutherford. …“Making sure that all the new buildings are built (with) as high energy performance as possible is going to set us up in a good way for meeting the needs of a growing community and meeting our climate goals.” …The concept is relatively new, with Toronto, Ottawa and Whitby introducing green development standards in the province.
Paper is a great paradox. It is the kind of product we both love and loathe. We want to live in a paperless world, yet we covet our packages, paper goods, printers and publications. What many don’t know is that we are suffering from a 
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Four years ago, the Pritzker Prize–winner Tadao Ando spectacularly converted a 1920s apartment building in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago into exhibition spaces for a gallery named Wrightwood 659. The gallery is currently staging a resourceful exhibition on wood-frame construction, the method by which more than 90% of U.S. houses are built. Rarely has wood-framing been the subject of an architectural show. It’s too mundane a topic—or at least it seemed that way until two associate professors at the University of Illinois Chicago, Paul Andersen and Paul Preissner, conceived the American Framing exhibition for the U.S. Pavilion at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale. One year after Venice, the much talked-about exhibition makes its American debut at Wrightwood 659. The show’s dominant feature is a soaring three-story assembly of wood-framing that fills the gallery’s atrium. Visitors walking through it get a sense of the vivid effects that are achievable with ordinary wood studs. 
International beauty packaging manufacturer and provider Quadpack and Aptar Beauty + Home, worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of beauty dispensing solutions, have jointly developed a refillable lipstick which pushes the boundaries of sustainability and sensory appeal in makeup packaging. The two companies have blended their respective expertise in wood and stick mechanisms to create a product that delivers a great consumer experience: the Iconic Woodacity lipstick. …The mechanism is contained in a monomaterial casing custom-designed and manufactured by Quadpack, made of 100% certified ash wood from sustainably-managed forests. Wood lends natural beauty and adds a sensory dimension to the pack. …The entire pack is made in Europe. The wooden container – with PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) or FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification on demand – is made at Quadpack’s wood factory in Catalonia, Spain, where a biomass plant converts production waste into energy.