VANCOUVER—A student residence under construction at the University of British Columbia will be one of the tallest wood buildings in the world when completed and could set a new precedent for wooden towers in Canada.
The 18-storey Brock Commons is intended to show developers and the public that wood can be as effective as steel or concrete, better for the environment, and support the country’s forestry industry.
“This project should effectively demonstrate that mass wood structures can be commonplace,” said Russell Acton, principal architect on the project.
Taller buildings require so-called mass timber supports and special cross-laminated timber plates that act similarly to concrete slabs. Mass timber is a large section of wood, suitable for competing with concrete, masonry, or steel construction.
While 17 floors of Brock Commons will be built with mass timber, the building’s base and two cores are made of concrete.
Designers, engineers, and the university purposefully chose a simple design with repetitive floor plans in order to gain special approval from building code authorities.
