Blog

WoodSolutions supports excellence and sustainable practice throughout Australia's design and construction sector. Professional organisations supported include the Master Builders, Housing Industry Association and other industry bodies.

National Carpenters Day was part of National Carpenters Week, 17th – 23rd November, 2014. During the week, some 5000 people attended the celebratory BBQ’s held at hardware stores, building supplies and TAFE’s across the nation.

Arguably the world's largest architectural competition, the Helsinki Guggenheim has attracted more than 1,700 entries. Nicolas Pratt, a young Australian architect living in Europe, tells us more....

Design awards are showcases of the best and most innovative projects involving wood and wood products - and the Ontario Wood Works! 2014 Awards are no exception, as the awards below demonstrate.

At 30 metres, the Wood Innovation Design Centre is North America's tallest all wood building. The newly opened building is part of the University of Northern British Columbia's campus.

Architect Mark O’Dwyer explains why one of the oldest building materials in the world – wood – makes such a good external insulator. “Timber has that benefit; it’s a wonderful shade screen, an external skin,” he said. “Timber itself likes to expand and contract. It thinks it’s still on the tree. As it heats up and accepts and rejects moisture, it expands and contracts the same way it did when it was in the tree.”

Lisa Thom was a Wood Solutions Sponsored Industry Attendee at the World Conference for Timber Engineering, Quebec City 2014. Lisa is a structural engineer and UNSW School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Graduate.

Internationally the move towards tall timber buildings is gaining momentum. The latest evidence for this is a US$2 million government and industry sponsored design competition in the US.

Sponsored by WoodSolutions, one:one is a national series of events run by the Australian Institute of Architects through the Student Organised Network for Architecture (SONA) and the Emerging Architects and Graduates Network (EmAGN).

If the proliferation of articles in the mainstream media about tall timber buildings is any guide, we'll soon be seeing a wooden skyline in many cities - this article from the UK Guardian, featuring WoodSolutions Seminar speaker, Michael Green, is an example.

One of the first questions asked about massive timber building systems (cross laminated timber etc.) is "are they more expensive than concrete and steel?". This article discusses a US report that concludes there is a small saving using timber, although costs are expected to fall as usage rises. WoodSolutions will soon be publishing an Australian cost comparison research report.

Now in their 15th year, the Australian Timber Deign Awards are Australia's preeminent awards for timber design and construction.

Angelina Lu Zhang is a postgraduate student in the Department of Civil Engineering at Melbourne's Monash University. Here she shares her impressions of WCTE 2014.

Hartmut Hering, the author of this blog entry, is a German wood construction engineer living in France and specialising in construction methods and technologies. A full case study of this project will be published on WoodSolutions.

The increasing use of cross laminated timber (CLT) in areas such as education, healthcare and public/community buildings is changing the way architects, building designers and engineers look at thedse projects.

The World Conference on Timber Engineering (WCTE) is a biennial event that this year was held in Quebec, Canada. WoodSolutions sponsored a group of engineering students and recent graduates, this is a report from one of them, Elliot Panizza

timber+DESIGN International is a free online Australian-based publication that features the best in innovative and excellent timber projects from local and international designers.

Murray Grove, a ten storey CLT apartment building and many schools, other apartments and more lead the UK's foray into tall timber, but does this Glulam structure rise above them all?

The Centre for Sustainable Architecture with Wood (CSAW) at University of Tasmania's Launceston campus provides industry-leading undergraduate and postgraduate short and long courses.

Spanning 30 categories and including architects in over 40 countries the WAF awards are the only global architectural awards where all of the shortlisted entrants talk about their projects. Festival attendees can watch presentations from every single shortlisted architect and also find out what the judges think of each project.

Adelaide's Kent Town in a trendy inner suburb, a stroll across the parklands from the East End precinct of the CBD.

A press release from New Zealand Institute of Architects announced that the Auckland firm S3 Architects’ proposal for an innovative timber building has won the competition to design an apartment building on a brownfield site in Mt Eden.

Hartmut Hering, the author of this blog entry, is a German wood construction engineer living in France and specialising in construction methods and technologies.

A Canadian who recently completed his Master’s degree in Switzerland, Nicholas provides insight into current market conditions and provides optimisation solutions for innovative design scenarios. for more details on existing modern multi-story heavy timber buildings and upcoming projects, Nicholas can be contacted through WoodSolutions.