David Moses was recently interviewed in Canadian Consulting Engineer Magazine.
In this interview, David explains the benefit of CLT in structural engineering and reflects on the changes in Canadian codes and standards over the past decade that supports the broader use of CLT in new buildings. David shares his insight on the evolving wood industry, including his recent contribution as lead author for the new Design Example in the 2019 edition of FPInnovation’s Canadian CLT Handbook.
“I was fortunate to be involved in the first CLT building in Canada while I was at Equilibrium Consulting: the Austria House for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Whistler, B.C. In addition to the first use of prefabricated solid CLT panels, it was also the first registered Passive House (PH) project in Canada.”
Because the project was completed prior to there being any standards or building code approvals, extensive homework and studies had to be done with literature from other countries.
David went on to develop a short course on CLT design with FPInnovations and the Canadian Wood Council (CWC), presented in major cities across Canada.
“Once the first edition of the handbook was published, it gave practitioners an opportunity to ‘dive deep’ into their understanding of CLT design. The natural next step was to provide an example of a tall wood building—specifically, an eight-storey platform-framed mass timber building in Ottawa—to make it more accessible to more designers.
The handbook has every topic covered and is an essential resource for anyone thinking of building with CLT for their first time. They will definitely refer back to it for the second, third or fourth buildings, whether they are in North America or other parts of the world.”
Will the trend of using wood in major construction projects continue in Canada?
“There is much more interest in wood for large-scale projects than in the past. This interest will continue as the supply chain increases product availability and as governments look for opportunities to incentivize atmospheric carbon reductions and promote their local forestry industries.
The handbook allows designers to answer many of the questions asked by building owners. With more knowledge, we expect less perceived risk and more market acceptance.”
