26 August 2025
This summer a superstructure for a four-storey housing complex will rise on a former public parking lot in Toronto’s Kensington Market.
What is novel about the 78-unit affordable housing project is that, other than a concrete foundation, it will be constructed of cross-laminated timber (CLT), including the elevator core.
Design firm Montgomery Sisam Architects chose a CLT superstructure (floors, roof, exterior walls) partly because it can be erected by a single trade in six to eight weeks, rather than the months required for conventional concrete construction, says Daniel Ling, a principal of Montgomery Sisam.
Kevin Hutchinson, principal at Montgomery Sisam, says mass timber was chosen over volumetric modular construction partly because of its design flexibility. It offers “more functional” floorplans for the one-bedroom suites.
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WoodWorks Issue – 26 Aug 2025
Welcome
Greetings from your WoodWorks team. This week to begin our Timber Tuesday we have NZ’s Techlam sharing their top 5 ways to make timber buildings more affordable including how involving wood experts early on in the design process can improve efficiency during construction. Next up in Winnipeg, Canada, check out a tall and slender building using timber diagrid frames to provide spatial optimisation on a limited footprint.
Canberra’s six-storey 23 National Circuit building has been recognised with a commercial architecture award. Jumping to Germany where the Park Arena Furth has been completed using clever and striking engineering to remove the need for complex steel connectors. In Kensington Market, Toronto a new four-storey housing complex will be built. CLT was chosen because it offered more design flexibility.
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This Issue
1
Wood is Good – When Understood
2
Diagrid Frames provide Spatial Optimisation
3
2025 ACT Architecture Awards – 23 National Circuit received an award for Commercial Architecture
4
Honeycomb-like timber canopy spanning nearly 40 meters in width
5
CLT superstructure ready to rise on former parking lot in Kensington Market
6
And one to end on… manure on strawberries?
26 August 2025
Wood is Good – When Understood
Wood is good – when understood. So true. At Techlam, they’ve spent years delivering engineered timber solutions across Aotearoa and beyond. From bespoke glulam beams to large-scale structural systems, they’ve...
26 August 2025
Diagrid Frames provide Spatial Optimisation
Bond Redux is a proposed mixed-use development in downtown Winnipeg designed by 5468796 Architecture. Envisioned as a catalyst for urban renewal, the project responds to a challenging site just 31...
26 August 2025
2025 ACT Architecture Awards – 23 National Circuit received an award for Commercial Architecture
From Canberra, Stewart Architecture’s 23 National Circuit building, located within the Realm precinct, serves as a sophisticated contribution to this diverse urban condition. Utilising a CLT structural system, the building...
26 August 2025
Honeycomb-like timber canopy spanning nearly 40 meters in width
From Germany we have the Park Arena Furth, a structurally optimised and also strikingly beautiful, honeycomb-like timber canopy spanning nearly 40 meters in width and rising to 15 meters in...
26 August 2025
CLT superstructure ready to rise on former parking lot in Kensington Market
This summer a superstructure for a four-storey housing complex will rise on a former public parking lot in Toronto’s Kensington Market. What is novel about the 78-unit affordable housing project...
26 August 2025
And one to end on… manure on strawberries?
A friend suggested putting horse manure on my strawberries. I’m never doing that again, I’m going back to whipped cream. Did you know? That by replacing your potato chips with...