TIMBER ADVANCEMENTS AND CHARACTERISTICS IN PROJECTS

DAY 2 – SESSION 3: TIMBER ADVANCEMENTS AND CHARACTERISTICS IN PROJECTS

For AIA/AIBC learning credits, please complete this brief quiz after watching the recording.

SEWELL’S LANDING, TIMBER FROM SEA TO SKY PROJECT:

The Sewells Landing project in West Vancouver celebrates the use of heavy timber.  The project is conceived as a village of structures stepping up from the waters of Horseshoe Bay to the cliffs of Tyee Point.  Everywhere the project is crowned in wood.  The timber forms the uppermost levels of all of the buildings, such that the living space comprises ’Westcoast houses in the sky’.

The project integrates heavy timber within non-combustible construction. On the basis of Code Alternative Solutions, the project team has been able to include exposed timber throughout, capping the concrete construction below.  This is actual timber structure up to twelve stories in the air, not a veneer.

We considered timber to be the most appropriate material to integrate the project into the village of Horseshoe Bay.  It allows residents to enjoy an authentic experience of Westcoast living, under wood, at the foot of the mountain, and beside the sea.  The Amenity Boathouse concludes this experience, offering access onto the water itself from a cathedral of timber.

THE PETAL AT EMILY CARR UNIVERSITY AND SOLO OFF-GRID CABIN PROJECTS:

In face of climate change, building with wood is the architecture and construction industries’ chance to challenge norms and drive the world’s aspirations towards zero carbon emissions. This presentation will demonstrate the potentials of advanced wood design and construction at scales from x-small to x-large. We will present two Vancouver projects designed by Perkins and Will with world class innovation in-mind, and with aspirations to be a catalyst for change: The Petal at Emily Carr University, and SoLo Off-Grid Cabin.

The Petal is both a landmark sculpture and a small coffee house pavilion that anchors the regeneration of the False Creek Flats area in Vancouver. The structure takes inspiration from flowers – and is a layered composition of mass timber shell petals, digitally manufactured and assembled on site. The design process of the pavilion connects the dots between design, technological innovation, and hands-on physical construction.

SoLo is an off-grid Cabin in the Lower Soo Valley, north of Whistler BC. The building paves a new path forward for a future way to build. It serves as a case study to test way and means to achieve net zero in both embodied and operation emissions. It is built of modular, prefabricated mass timber and follows rigorous Passive House standards to dramatically reduce energy consumption. It challenges notions of what high-performance buildings can achieve in both performance and aesthetics.