by Web Editor | Sep 2, 2015 | News
We ask: If the 19th century modern building material technology was associated with steel and the 20th century with concrete, could the 21st be the century of “MCT,” mass construction timber? Wood, one of the world’s oldest (and greenest) building materials, was the de facto construction material in American cities for over two centuries, falling out of favor when non-combustible materials capable of building high and wide emerged.
Today, highly engineered timber, sized to compete with these structural systems, is making a comeback in Europe, especially in Germany and in Austria, where the world’s first 8-story “ply-scraper” was recently completed. Stateside, the Boston Society of Architects recently featured Urban Timber, an exhibit showcasing innovative developments in wood technology and construction, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture is sponsoring a $2M ideas competition for the design of tall wood buildings. Given all of this hoopla, one could assume that we are on the verge of a global timber revolution, yet the U.S. is lagging far behind our European neighbors. In fact, to date, neither the U.S. nor Canadian building codes explicitly recognize mass timber structural systems.
Deeply committed to sustainability, we made the choice to dive feet first into connecting with the past to build the future by employing MCT for the primary structural system of our University of Massachusetts Amherst Design Building. Designed with Equilibrium Consultants, one of the world’s foremost timber engineers, the building will house the university’s Departments of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Regional Planning, and Building Construction Technology, and is now under construction. Permitted through a variance application using the “alternative” method provisions of the building code, our 87,000-square-foot building furthers the university’s educational mission by incorporating examples of the inherent departments’ design practices. Targeting LEED Gold, it will be among the first MCT structures in the region when completed in 2017.
Laminated technologies, first developed in Europe in the 1980s, are allowing us to fabricate fairly massive timber components for the Design Building using small diameter trees sustainably harvested from managed forests. Our selected timber, black spruce, was sourced from Canada’s Boreal forest region, an area that constitutes the world’s largest land based biome. It is constituted to stand up to fire and maintain its structural integrity.
From Metropolis Magazine: https://www.metropolismag.com/Point-of-View/August-2015/Timbers-Transformation-An-Old-Building-Material-is-Reborn/
by Web Editor | Jul 2, 2015 | News
For the seventh time, the Schweighofer Prize, the Innovation Award for the European Forest-Based Sector, was awarded last month. Austrian forest-based industrial and initiator Gerald Schweighofer awarded the prizes in the presence of Austrian Federal Minister for Agriculture and Environment Andrä Rupprechter, Austrian Federal Minister for Labour and Social Affairs Rudolf Hundstorfer, as well as Vienna’s Mayor Michael Häupl.
This year for the first time, the Schweighofer Prize established a cooperation with one of the largest integrated forest products companies in the world; the North American company Canfor which produces timber, cellulose and paper. Canfor sponsored ten students from Canada and the USA to take part in an “Innovation Workshop” on the day before the Schweighofer Prize. According to the motto “From Knowledge to Innovation”, 27 young researchers from a total of 16 countries exchanged ideas under the leadership of Schweighofer Prize jury chairman Prof. Dr. Alfred Teischinger (University of Agricultural Science) in the domed hall of the TU Vienna.
The main prize 2015 was awarded to Dr. Erich Wiesner from Altheim, Austria. He was honored with €100,000. “Dr. Wiesner has developed his company into a leading timber Construction Company in Europe. The completed projects present impressive and technically demanding constructions. In addition to his successful entrepreneurial activities, Dr. Wiesner has acted for many years as a leading representative of woodworking industries both in Austria and on a European level”, said jury chairman Univ. Prof. Dr. Alfred Teischinger.
From FORDAQ: https://www.fordaq.com/fordaq/news/Schweighofer_prize_Vienna_innovations_42620.html
by Web Editor | Jun 12, 2015 | News
According to estimates made by the organizer Deutsche Messe, visitor numbers at this year’s Ligna 2015 in Hannover increased to roughly 96,000, representing 7% more than those at the 2013 event. With approximately 40,000 visitors from abroad, the proportion of foreign visitors increased by roughly 2% to almost 42%. Most foreign visitors came from Austria, France, Italy, the USA, Great Britain, Russia, Belgium, Poland, Sweden, China and Brazil. The proportion of trade visitors also apparently rose by 2% compared with 2013 figures, to 96%. Deutsche Messe reports that the number of participants from Asia, at 4,700, increased over-proportionally by roughly 68%. Similar strong growth in numbers was shown by visitors from South and Central America, at 68%.
Deutsche Messe and the Wood Processing Machines Trade Association within VDMA (German Machine and Plant Construction Association) have announced a new layout concept for the next staging of Ligna from 22 to 26 May 2017. The three previously spatially separate sections “Solid Wood Processing”, “Furniture Industry” and “Crafts”, which until now dealt with final processing, will be merged in the newly created main product-range section “Tools, Machines and Plant for Custom and Series Production”.
Exhibitors focusing on “Solid Wood Processing” will in the future enjoy priority to be located in Hall 27, as a result of which suppliers will be moved closer to the “Sawmill Technology” section in Hall 25. The associated section “Wood Construction” in Hall 13 will also then be situated in the immediate vicinity. The organizers expect this change to generate synergies between the sections “Surface Processing” in Hall 17 and “Wood Based Panels” in Hall 26. With its own focus in Hall 16, Automation Engineering is to be given greater weight in future.
From EUWID: https://www.euwid-wood-products.com/news/roundwoodsawnwood/single/archive/2015/june/Artikel/ligna-visitor-numbers-up-by-7-to-roughly-96000.html
by Web Editor | Feb 20, 2015 | News
From: Panel World Staff
Oregon State University has begun an initiative to build a $60 million complex to accelerate its forestry education programs and research on advanced wood products at Corvallis, Ore. The Oregon Forest Science Complex will encompass renovation of existing OSU campus facilities as well as new construction; showcase innovative uses of wood in building design; and allow the College of Forestry to help meet the world’s growing demand for energy efficient, tall buildings made from sustainable building products.
The project includes a $30 million fundraising goal. Once philanthropic commitments are secured, OSU will seek matching bonds from the state. Bonding for the project was included in the governor’s capital budget for consideration in the upcoming legislative session.
The initiative was announced in Portland at the Oregon Leadership Summit of the Oregon Business Plan by Thomas Maness, the Cheryl Ramberg Ford and Allyn C. Ford Dean of the College of Forestry.
“We are excited about leading a new national effort to advance the science and technology necessary to primarily use wood in the construction of 5- to 20-story buildings,” Maness says. “Developing these new, competitively priced, environmentally friendly products will not only increase the value of Oregon’s natural resources, but also grow jobs in our rural communities, with substantial benefits for our state.”
Seeking new methods to reduce the carbon footprint of high-rise construction, architects and engineers from Austria to Canada, Norway and New Zealand have begun constructing buildings with exceptionally strong wood products. This cross-laminated timber is made of strips of wood glued together across the grain, and panels can be more than 1 foot thick and 80 feet long.
Read more on this story in the March issue of Panel World…
by Web Editor | Feb 13, 2015 | News
From: Panel World Staff
The Vienna International Wood Products/Markets Conference, Expo & Tours will be held June 16-21 in Vienna, Austria. The event is organized by International Wood Markets Group, Inc. and Georgia Research Institute.
On June 16 will be an invitation-only Schweighofer Prize reception and dinner. The Schweighofer Prize ceremony is held every two years and awards money for technologies, products and services that strengthen the competitiveness of the European forest-based industries. More than 600 international delegates from 40 countries are expected to attend.
The conference and expo will be held June 17 at the Hotel Savoyen Vienna. Speakers from Europe and worldwide will address trends, issues and outlooks in international sawn wood and panel markets, including Europe, Russia, China, Middle East and North America. The full day conference will assess global market opportunities and wood products trade. Concurrently on June 17 an all-day wood products equipment supplier exposition will be held adjacent the conference.
June 18-19 will feature an Eastern Austria Industry Tour of mills producing lumber, cross laminated timber and engineered wood products. The tour starts and ends at the conference hotel in Vienna, with one night spent outside of Vienna.
On June 20-21, Schweighofer will host a tour in the Radauti area of Romania of its large single line sawmill, a laminated post-and-beam plant, an edge-glued panel plant, particleboard plant and pellet mill. The tour will spend two nights in Radauti and ends at the Vienna Airport.
Read more on this story in the March 2015 issue of Panel World…
