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Bluewater is a 'shopping destination' in Kent in the UK. Visited by some 500,000 people a week, it's more like a town than a shopping centre. As part of a strategy to increase the duration of vistors' stays, a hotel with leading edge environmental credentials was commissioned by developers Lendlease.

Just when designers and engineers are coming to grips with the exciting potential of cross laminated timber (CLT) along comes another flavor of the material, interlocking CLT or ICLT, that plans to use no fasteners or adhesives.

Designed to be used only during the London Olympics, this McDonalds store at Olympic Park is not only their largest store, but also the shortest lived.

Now in their 13th year, the Australian Timber Design Awards have been honouring excellence in timber design for thirteen years. Entry is open to architects, builders, designers, engineers, interior designers and landscape architects. Categories cover all major applications, small budget projects, sustainability, a People's Choice Award and a Rising Star Award. This year's entries will automatically be considered for the 2013 International Timber Design Awards.

American hardwoods offer a wide range of species, primarily used for interior applications. This is an opportunity to familiarise yourself with what's available and aks an expert any questions you may have.

Inspirational design seems to have an affinity with structures performing a religious role and Bigelow Chapel in Minnesota is no exception.

As the world transitions to a lower carbon economy, materials, practices and processes in commercial design and construction will reflect changing values and priorities. What these will be is an interesting and potentially vital question. Described as 'Australia's only eco event for the complete commercial construction industry' Future Build provides glimpses of what may unfold.

Focused on residential design, the Houses Awards are presented by Architectural Media, publishers of a wide range of titles relating to architecture and design. WoodSolutions sponsored the Outdoor Category.

WoodSolutions were proud to be a sponsor of the annual BDAV 2012 Building Design Awards. The standard of the entries was high - and a flick through the online ebook at their website is highly recommended.

Described by its architects, Melling:Morse as "A two bedroom house on a tiny, wedge-shaped section separating the harbour view and it’s street frontage," The Wedge was a NZ Home of the year finalist in 2006 and awarded a Residential Architectural Excellence Award in 2006 Timber Design Australasia

A much awarded project, the Savill Building - the visitor centre at the Savill Garden, Windsor Great Park - has weathered gracefully, integrating, as planned, into the landscape.

Wind power is renewable and more sustainable than fossil fuel generated power - however, it still has a significant carbon footprint owing to the materials used during the fabrication and erection of the turbine. Making a 100m tower from wood is one way of reducing that footprint....

The World Conference on Timber Engineering (or WCTE as it's more conveniently referred to) begins the formal parts of the program in Auckland, NZ, on Monday July 16. The program for the day is listed below and you should be able to discover more about individual presentations by clicking through the embedded links. An event sponsor, WoodSolutions has aso sponsored a group of 15 engineering students from a wide range of Australian tertiary institutions to attend WCTE. There's a fascinating program and a range of abstracts with a topics to interest anyone concerned with design and building with timber. We'll be posting some of the highlights and interesting pieces here - but to keep in touch, please check out our Facebook page, linked below.

Occasionally last minute opportunities become available and we are delighted to be able to offer them to you. This one-off Q&A seminar, presented by Professor Motoi Yasumura, Shizuoka University, Japan, is titled, "The Japanese experience related to environmentally friendly, earthquake resistant timber construction". Don't be put off by the reference to earthquakes, there's a lot of content that's relevant to Melbourne too.

Every now and then a new product redefines the way things are made, or creates new possibilities for existing materials. UPM Grada, which looks just like ordinary plywood, but is easier to shape may be such a product.

300+ presentations from 36 countries, 450 abstracts, 3 days at the 9th World Conference on Timber Engineering in New Zealand. This is a must attend event for engineers, architects, building designers and other design and build professionals interested in wood and wood products.

The WoodSolutions Advanced Timber Building Systems Seminar included a visit to Forte, Lendlease's new CLT building in Melbourne's Docklands. Planet Ark's Chris Philpot attended wearing his Make It Wood hat and here are his notes and pics.

Both Andrew Waugh and Michael Green have visited Australia and presented to WoodSolutions audiences. Recently they joined forces to present to a Yale University audience. Their presentation is both interesting and inspirational - if you are interested in sustainable building development.

Emergency Architects Australia (EAA) is a not for profit organisation that helps to rebuild lives and support local communities in Australasia and the Pacific region. EAA aims to provide best practice technical expertise to find solutions to local problems which are often caused by natural or man-made disasters. WoodSolutions new case study is one of their recent projects.

With Lend Lease's Forte building in Victoria Harbour in Melbourne's Docklands hitting the news as the world's tallest timber residential building, we thought it time to look at some other iconic timber structures. Staying with the theme of extremes, the largest building seemed an obvious area of exploration. However, when evaluating the size of structures, what are the critical measures? Length, depth, height, volume? In this short item we'll look at US airdocks - a volume contender.

On of the challenges for sustainable design is to incorporate the environmental affects over the ful lifecycle of a product - and this includes after the end of its service life. Typically wood products are recycled, buried as landfill, increasingly burned as fuel and sometimes burned as waste. The question this report addresses is how long do wood products and parer continue to sequester carbon after they are buried as landfill? The answers have implications for life cycle analysis (LCA) reports and the competitive benefits of wood products over other materials.

How often are you offered the opportunity to tour the world's tallest residential wood building during the construction phase? This half day seminar is a unique opportunity to see CLT construction in action - and hear presentations from local and international experts.

A group of almost 100 representatives from ENGOs, the forest and wood industry, retailers, manufacturers and engineers gathered at Dockside in Sydney's Darling Harbour on Thursday 31 May to discuss and workshop the current state of wood products certification in Australia.

With the growing popularity of engineered wood products, increased knowledge of timber engineering is becoming a professional and business asset. Here's your opportunity to learn what the world leaders are doing.