The last few months have seen a major transition for China, with the COVID-19 travel restrictions being dropped. As the borders reopen for travel, we will be adapting our programs for the new dynamics of the market, to better support industry stakeholders. After almost 20 years, we will be moving out of the Dream Home Canada (DHC) building as we look at where we can adjust our programs to a greater awareness of wood construction amongst designers and builders in China, which reflects the success of our work over the years. …While our offices will change, our mandate remains the same, to promote the use of wood products in construction and wood-in-manufacturing sectors and to support Canadian wood exports to China. …An interview with the designer Peter Fu shares more detail about how the DHC building fits into the evolution of wood construction in China. 

The smartest new-build homes are not just sustainable, but also soothe the senses. The secret is CLT. We asked some of its biggest fans in the architecture world why it’s the material of the moment. …CLT has been used in construction for more than two decades, primarily for large-scale housing and office developments. But amid growing concerns about sustainability, architects are now exploring its benefits on a smaller, more residential scale. …A big advantage of this material lies in its creation of interiors that don’t need any additional finishing. As long as the wood is treated with a fire-retardant coating – a requirement of UK building regulations – it can be left exposed. Studies have shown that being surrounded by wood can reduce blood pressure, heart rate and stress levels, and improve a person’s emotional state, so the potential wellbeing benefits of this style of interior are enormous.

Architects enthusiastic about mass timber must improve their understanding of fire safety or risk disaster, experts tell Dezeen as part of the Timber Revolution series. Uncertainty among governments and insurers over whether mid- and high-rise timber buildings are safe in a fire remains a key obstacle to the greater adoption of engineered-wood buildings. No consensus has been reached across different building code jurisdictions about the safety limitations of building with wood, and the rules vary wildly between countries. In Finland, the maximum permitted height for a residential building with a load-bearing timber structure and no sprinklers is two storeys. In neighbouring Sweden, there is no limit. Some countries, including the US, France and Switzerland have recently changed regulations to make building with timber easier, but others – like the UK – have made it tougher.

World Wood Day is a cultural event on March 21st, the vernal equinox, to highlight wood as an eco-friendly and renewable biomaterial and to raise awareness on the key role wood plays in a sustainable world through biodiversity and forest conservation. The day serves as a reminder of the importance and true value of wood and its responsible uses. A major event is organized annually on March 21, usually week-long, to celebrate wood across disciplines. Artists, educators, hobbyists, and industries come together from different lands, languages and cultures to share experiences, skills and passions for wood. The event centralizes various uses of wood which allows extrapolation and eventual application to individual lifestyles. Satellite events are organized in different regions throughout the year to continue the exploration and experiences. 

Philip Oldfield

There is a paradox in our desire for a low-carbon built environment. On the one hand, we know buildings are responsible for 37 per cent of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, and we need to radically reduce this to avoid global heating. On the other, UN-Habitat estimates that 3 billion people need adequate housing by 2030, with demand for 96,000 new homes every day (that’s more than one per second), giving us a clear moral responsibility to build to improve people’s lives.  But building is inherently carbon-intensive, which leaves us with a problem.  …Our current building practices are unsustainable, that much is clear. A major concern over embodied carbon has emerged, sparking a great architectural debate on what materials we should be using and when, along with a flurry of innovation in material science. …Mass timber has risen from this debate as the go-to material for more sustainable design.

Joe Giddings

We should be aiming for the future depicted in the Timber Revolution logo with a combination of mid- and high-rise mass-timber buildings interspersed with trees, argues ACAN co-founder Joe Giddings in this interview.  …”I really think we should be building our cities densely and avoiding urban sprawl, and if we follow that to its logical conclusion you need buildings at scale.”  Giddings is a co-founder of the Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN) pressure group and UK networks lead at Built By Nature, an organisation dedicated to accelerating timber construction across Europe.  …Because of their structural properties, Giddings believes that mass-timber products like cross-laminated timber, glued laminated timber and laminated veneer lumber are best-placed to decarbonise the built environment, and not timber frame as some experts suggest. 

Chichi Zhang

University of Canterbury (UC) PhD student Chichi Zhang is developing technology and relevant metal oxide materials to help produce green hydrogen from New Zealand’s abundant supply of woody biomass.  Woody biomass originates from trees including stems, branches, barks as well as forestry slash – the technology and materials developed in this project could help solve the problem of slash wood washed away from forests in heavy rain. Together with wastes from manufacturing traditional wood products, it can be used as solid fuel for energy or converted to liquid fuels, gaseous fuels and chemicals through various technologies.  …Her project is the first part of an integrated process to produce green hydrogen from woody biomass. Eventually, the hydrogen and carbon dioxide mixture will be separated to produce pure hydrogen and pure carbon dioxide.