2014 North American Wood Design Awards

The Wood Innovation Design Centre (WIDC) celebrates wood as one of the most beautiful and sustainable materials for building. The building serves as a gathering place for researchers, academics, design professionals and others interested in generating ideas for innovative uses of wood. It shows that tall timber buildings can be economical, safe and environmentally superior options for future urban building.
The eight-story building stands 29.5-metres tall – one of the world’s tallest modern all-timber structures. With this project, the architect sought to demonstrate economical, repeatable technologies for building high-rise structures with timber, in hopes of inspiring institutions, private sector developers and other architects and engineers to embrace this way of building. The architect has championed a movement to urban wood buildings for over a decade. WIDC is an early global example of this growing trend.
British Columbia’s building code does not currently allow for timber buildings over four-storeys, with the exception of six-storey residential projects. The province enacted a Site Specific Regulation to allow WIDC to be built for academic and office use. With no precedent, the project team had to prove that all life safety requirements could be met with the mass timber design. Extensive mock-ups, testing, and detailed studies were done to satisfy the team, the owner, and the building officials of the soundness of the project’s approach, and its applicability to future projects.
The architect chose to use no concrete in the WIDC project above the ground floor slab with an end of life demount-ability in mind. The mass timber structural elements are exposed as is the ceiling finish in most spaces, allowing occupants to see and understand the structure around them.
Realized in just 15 months from beginning of design to occupancy, the WIDC project features a state-of-the-art distance learning auditorium, classrooms, shops, demonstration areas and offices. The University of Northern British Columbia occupies the lower three floors of the building, providing a Master of Engineering in Integrated Wood Design. Emily Carr University of Art and Design occupies the middle floors, and the upper floors provide office space for government and wood industry-related organizations.
The building exterior is inspired by bark peeling from the trunk of a tree; bark on the north side, thick and protective from the cold and elements, thins away towards the south sunlight. The architect chose to clad the building exterior in a mix of natural cedar, left to weather naturally to gray, and charred cedar. The choice to char the cladding builds on traditional Japanese and Nordic practices. The layer of char on the exterior of the wood provides insect and rot resistance, as well as increased fire resistance. It requires very minimal maintenance and creates a beautiful dark patina that changes with the light. The glazing systems used a custom-engineered wood curtainwall system.
This project has set many precedents internationally through the extensive engineering research and testing to prove the safety and validity of mass timber construction techniques. The work completed and innovations proven have removed hurdles and opened up the market for more tall timber projects to come.