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Could the structural frame be 100% wood with no steel connection hardware or fasteners?

1 July 2025

While the growth of mass timber is facilitated by a hybrid approach to using each of the key construction materials to suit their best properties, there is still a place for the purist approach of mass timber everywhere.

The project is an iconic 6-story mass timber student space designed in collaboration with BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group and BNIM. Challenging the mass timber status quo, structural engineers posed the question: could the structural frame be 100% wood with no steel connection hardware or fasteners? Full-scale connection prototyping (with a resulting full-scale mockup) and a deep dive into pure timber engineering ensued.

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WoodWorks Issue – 01 Jul 2025

Welcome

Greetings from your WoodWorks team. First up we have an interpretation of the current New Zealand building climate from Simplicity. Then we get insights into the Tauranga City Council building from some of the design and construction team. In our third story today it’s another one for the engineers. They posed the question: could the structural frame be 100% wood with no steel connection hardware or fasteners? Finally the beautiful Multihalle in Germany is being restored so this once temporary venue will become permanent for future generations to enjoy.

We are getting close to finalising the speaker programme for our annual WoodWorks Conference. If your team has an innovative case study of a mass timber project, we invite you to send a presentation proposal.

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