Tag Archives: Wood

Trees in the Tower: Designing the Surrey Memorial Hospital Critical Care Tower

The Surrey Memorial Hospital Critical Care Tower represents the most significant application to date of structural and non-structural wood products in a B.C. healthcare facility. The use of wood in publicly funded buildings is encouraged by the province’s Wood First Act, but it is also supported by scientific research linking exposure to daylight and views of nature with improved patient recovery times and occupant well-being.

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Wood-framed Floors Beyond Code: The importance of balancing design trends, product choices, and installation methods

When designing a wood-framed floor system for multi-family projects, building to meet the prevailing building code is only the first step in the performance spectrum. Once complying with those requirements, there remains an array of choices a designer can make without materially affecting the project’s overall cost that nonetheless directly affect occupant comfort and the floor’s perceived quality.

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The mid-rise horizon

Within the next two decades, Toronto expects its population to grow by 500,000; the city’s plan is to accommodate half of these new residents in mid-rise developments. In light of the fact mid-rises—defined as between four and 11 storeys—are still often seen as an uneconomical mode of development, the city’s plan may seem overly ambitious.

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Specifying modern timber connections

Widely used in conventional frame construction, wood is not new to the Canadian design community. What is ‘new,’ however, are changes to building codes that allow for taller structures to be constructed of wood, along with the introduction and development of new products like cross-laminated timber (CLT) and other massive wood panels manufactured from laminated veneer lumber (LVL) or laminated strand lumber (LSL).

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The Sky’s The Limit: Designing airports with wood

Before the 1850s, wood was commonly used as a primary structural building material in myriad types of non-residential construction around the world. Many of these timber-built structures remain standing and are still in use today, including factories, warehouses, schools, temples, and churches—some dating as far back as the seventh century, demonstrating the durability and strength of building with wood.

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Mid-rise Makeovers: B.C. code changes encourage building with wood

Something old is new again on the B.C. construction landscape. Currently, more than 100 mid-rise or six-storey wood-frame residential structures are in development or have been completed. Since the B.C. Building Code (BCBC) was revised in 2009—increasing the permissible height of light-frame wood construction for residential buildings to six storeys—there has been a lot of interest in the building and design community to pursue new projects. It is easy to understand this emerging trend in high-density residential construction when considering the environmental, social, and economical benefits.

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